Finding Finished ~ paintings by Janet Bothne

First Friday’s ARTScrawl led me to Palette Contemporary Art & Craft in Albuquerque’s Northeast Heights. Janet Bothne, the featured artist for November, opened last Friday with her exhibition Finding Finished. Bothne says, “One of the hardest parts of the painting process is knowing when a painting is truly finished.” She has sometimes hung and shown a work only to get it back into the studio and give it one final stroke or "punctuation" before being fully satisfied. Over time, Bothne has learned that there is a critical point in a painting’s “life cycle” where one must stop before "killing" some of its most compelling elements. She looks very carefully at each painting to examine what’s working and what isn’t, before painting its final 10%. Sometimes, she'll ponder a piece for months before her eye provides answers as to what is required for its completion.