The need to be brutal, or Kill your darlings

Sometimes it’s necessary to be brutal. I strived with this painting for a long time. Somehow the foreground never became interesting enough. The first version of the painting, with the high foreground, is maybe more compositionally satisfying, but for me it’s impossible to keep a part of a painting that I don’t find filled with enough content that interests me. So: “Kill your darlings” is maybe the most important doctrine as far as painting is concerned. This time it was done with a knife and new stretcher bars.