Not Quite Ready

This one's a difficult painting to finish. It looks somewhat naive in style, and is rough and bland, but it's very close to what I planned. But not quite. I've found that if something doesn't look quite right on a painting, I can take a photo and usually see some things right away that need to be reworked. For one thing, the background on the far left needs more depth and color. I also see few stems that I inadvertently painted over. And the three flowers on the right need to be softened around the dark centers. Maybe I'll change a little on the vases, too. I'm not sure.

At first, I painted the background a very bright orange with the intent of letting some of the color show through when all is said and done.

I sort of wish I had left the background alone. Oh well, maybe I can paint another one similar and leave it like this before I go adding layer after layer.

After laying in some color with a brush, I went over the vases and background with a palette knife. And I went over them again... and again. I don't remember how many layers are there! First I had more gray on the left and taupe on the right. But by the time I finished (or nearly finished), the taupe was on the left and gray on the right. I'd seen on an art blog that if the light is coming from the right, make the background on the right darker, and the background on the dark side lighter. This makes the highlights and shadows on the items pop. It isn't as noticeable on this painting since I tried to keep everything fairly neutral.

When you look closer, you can see that some of the flowers nearly blend in with the background. At first, I was going to change that and make them more prominent, but the more I look at it, the better I like it.

Do you have trouble deciding when your work is finished? Do you want to keep adjusting here and there until it's completely reworked? How do you decide when to stop?

Thanks for visiting today!
Blessings,
Lana