Mistake? Or Intentional? We Won't Tell if You Don't

I recently attended a flea market where this sign caught my eye. A little research uncovered that the quote is from Scott Adams (unfortunately the sign maker didn't see fit to credit him). As any artist will tell you, we all make "mistakes." But what really constitutes a mistake, and when do those mistakes turn into happy accidents?

"Alexander Cozens, an English landscape painter famous for his study of neoclassical beauty, was illustrating something to a pupil with a quick sketch when he noticed that what he’d drawn had been unconsciously affected by the pre-existing marks on the soiled page. ‘The stains,’ he wrote, ‘though extremely faint, appeared upon revisal to have influenced me, insensibly, in expressing the general appearance of landscape.’ Using a wet brush dipped in stronger ink, he deliberately made some marks on another piece of paper, and instructed his student to turn the blots into a landscape. The previously hesitant boy’s power of composition was freed, and an easy method for generating new landscapes was born." ("The Deliberate Accident in Art," Blots, by Christopher Turner, 1 January 2011, Tate Etc. issue 21: Spring 2011)

The history of art is probably filled with such "happy accidents" which enhance the work or, as in Cozens's case, actually developed into new methods of making art. Our own gallery members relate several such instances: 

"Fall 3"  - before, by Elisabeth Hudgins

"Fall 3" - final painting, by Elisabeth Hudgins

Says Gallery member Elisabeth Hudgins: "I was working in watercolor on some figure paintings. I was too impatient and started painting in my brown background color before the "figure" color had dried, leading to bleeding of the background color into the figure. I put this painting away for a while in my "mistakes" pile.

Later, I began working with painting directly on leaves, and making prints on paper with them. While looking for paper, I came across my figure painting mistake and decided to combine the two. Because of the overlaid transparency of the leaves, the blended figure and background no longer is a glaring mistake, but part of a desirable overall effect,  I liked this effect so much, I have gone on to produce a series of Figure/Leaf paintings."

Another Gallery member, Bryan Jernigan, describes his "happy accident:" “I work a lot in non-representational abstract painting, so oftentimes, I’m abstracting from thoughts and feelings (as opposed to abstracting from something I’m looking at). At one point, I was in a very calm and serene place, and I wanted to communicate that serenity with subtle shades of taupe, white and gray. I kept struggling with how to do it without creating something boring. Loving color as I do, I thought to myself, the only way to emphasize the calmness in the painting would be to have those soothing colors bounce off something more colorful – not a lot, just enough to evoke the feeling. I chose a bit of red, and used a small brush to apply it. Okay, I had the pop of color. Then I thought, why not add a bit of cool blue to add some depth to the grays and taupes? Without paying much attention, I grabbed a blue from my box (couldn’t tell the shade because there was dried paint over the name of the color). When I applied it with a larger brush, I realized immediately it was going in the wrong direction. The blue was too “in your face,” too “loud.” I was immediately baffled, it broke my rhythm and I couldn’t figure out where to go from there…how to fix it. I sat with the piece for a long time. In the interim, someone saw the piece and asked if I created it for Independence Day! 

"Thrust" - before, by Bryan Jernigan

"Because abstract artists are often super tied to the elements of composition, thinking about the piece compositionally was equally frustrating. The piece went nowhere. It just sat there, flat. After a few days, I had had it. I went at the piece with a bit of white to cover up some of the blue, but then I decided to throw in the towel completely. I grabbed some black, loaded my brush and attacked the canvas in an effort to cover the painting entirely. 

Suddenly, my answer appeared before me. The way the black covered the blue, and played against the subtler shades, made all the difference. It toned the piece down, but the expressive strokes also gave the piece a dynamism that wasn’t there before. The dark marks reminded me of a bird taking flight against an airy sky.

"Thrust" - final painting, by Bryan Jernigan

I call this piece, “Thrust,” alluding to the energy expressed in the black marks in the bottom quadrant. Not only is it now one of my favorite pieces, it sold to a lovely couple over Memorial Day Weekend. And in a rare instance for a painter, I was actually able to help them hang it in their living room, allowing me to see how it worked with rest of the art in the room. Nothing quite as gratifying as seeing a piece of your work hanging in a room of the family that loved it enough to live with it.”

You may very well have a treasured painting on your wall that started out as a "mistake." And you may never know...

--Sandi Parker, Gallery Co-Director