The Colors of Winter

How do you control the inner voice inside you that always seems to say, when you’re working on a mixed media piece, “just a little bit more- it’s still missing something”?  There are times, like with this current piece, that my inner voice was just a little too vocal, and I listened to it.  I should have stopped before all the purple splatters and left it more simple and less messy (at least over certain areas), but I just kept going.  It’s always such a balancing act.  I tend to really take my time and agonize over what elements to add, but I had started practicing on a few other pieces working fast and not thinking too much about what I was doing.  It was a great experiment and helped me to really come up with some different pieces, but I should not have used it in this case.  I do have a long way to go as an artist, especially recognizing what techniques and strategies I should be using for different pieces.

I was experimenting with colors with this piece and that part I feel was a success.  I love the way the purples and greens show each other off against the black, especially with the hints of blue in the paper elements.  The pictures all have different filters (I couldn’t help playing around a little bit), but the real piece is closest to the top picture.  The idea of putting purple, green and blue together doesn’t really scream “cold” to me, but these shades against the black canvas convey that feeling well, at least in the top 2 pictures.  What sort of feeling does this bottom picture have?