Philosophy of painting according to Donna -part 2

This post is an addition to the previous one. I have two more sections which I plan to post in the future.
Building a painting

Painting is like building a house. Like walls, floors, plumbing and wiring in a house, the structure of composition through line, space, color, form, shape, texture and value must be built intelligently and completed before you add the surface touches (details, highlights, etc.) If I carry in the furniture and china before the structure is complete, I slow the builders and my pretties will be destroyed.

Don’t fear your painting. The worst we have to do is correct it. It can always be fixed.

Take a break often and look at your painting from a few steps back, maybe from a lot of steps back. During the structural stage, the far view is more important than the close view.

Stop before you are exhausted and frustrated. If you start feeling tense or discouraged, back away or walk away. When you come again, take a long objective look. Regain your vision before you continue. Ask yourself “What does this painting need from me.” Don’t be afraid of the answers. Sometimes you must leave the original vision to serve the present work.

Bring the whole painting along together. One neglected area affects your opinion of all the others.

The painting above is one I worked on for a long time. Since it is acrylic, that was not a problem. In all, it took 8 or 9 years to complete! It's somewhat large and depicts a real spot in my real world. It became strongly representational and finely detailed. At first I was quite discouraged by that, for I had earlier painted a trail from the same park and it was spontaneous and free and had my heart. This picture is an example of discarding yourself to serve the work.
Many of my paintings are a result of my teaching and those often have a strong attention to detail. The paintings I do simply for myself are more formal in composition and more impressionistic in style.