Cherry Blossom Festival painting wins the juror award at the KVIE art auction. .

I was surprised to get a call from the people at Channel 6 letting me know that I had won a juror's award from the 300 paintings in this show. I'm not exactly sure what that means but I'm happy about it. Thanks to KVIE! So I guess it's good to edit after all.

To Edit or Not to Edit? That is the Question.

I've decided that rather than continue creating new works I'm going to go back and fix some of the pieces that have always bugged me, for one reason or another. For example, I've always felt that my large oil painting from the Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival in Japantown, San Francisco, had a dull sky, not only in action but in color. (See below) The blue was kind of dead. I went back and added some clouds, birds, etc. and this gave it a lot more energy. I also added the "SF" logo to the Giants booth and included a lot of cherry blossoms in the air. I wanted the fans to be focal points so I added more white and added a darker red to the rising sun part. I'm much happier with the final version. Let me know what you think?

Painting wet in wet has some limitations and it takes a few months to let time pass and paint dry in order to see what you'd like to adjust. I took some inspiration from Terry Miura, who doesn't give up on a painting if it nags him for some editing a few months or years later. What are your thoughts?

After

Before