After the Rain: When Letting Go Creates Something Better

When an Abstract Floral Painting Isn’t Working

I started with a clear vision: a loose, expressive floral painting that felt like you had zoomed in on blooming flowers. Soft layers. Subtle movement. Light filtering through petals.

I built up acrylic paint in layers. Adjusted color. Shifted composition.

But it wasn’t right.

Technically, it worked. Emotionally, it didn’t.

And when you create intuitive mixed media art the way I do, emotion matters more than perfection.

So I did something risky.

I took the canvas outside and sprayed off as much paint as I could. Water blurred the layers. Details dissolved. Hours of work washed down the driveway.

Then I scraped away even more.

What remained was raw. Textured. Uncertain.

This is often part of the process in contemporary abstract painting — not adding more, but removing what isn’t serving the piece.

Letting the Mixed Media Layers Breathe

I let it dry completely.

No fixing. No forcing.

When I returned, I didn’t try to recreate what had been there before. Instead, I pulled out brighter pigments and began layering again — this time with curiosity instead of expectation.

Vibrant reds began to rise.
Warm greens emerged.
A turquoise ground brought movement and depth.

The scraped textures remained visible beneath the surface, adding history and dimension to the final composition.

What had felt ruined now felt alive.

This original abstract floral artwork carries the feeling of renewal, the moment after disruption when color returns.

It’s about transformation.
About trusting the process.
About understanding that just because something begins one way doesn’t mean it’s meant to end that way.

That thread runs through much of my contemporary mixed media art. I begin with a feeling, not a fixed plan. The work evolves through layering, removing, softening, and rediscovering.

After the Rain became one of my favorite paintings because it reminds me that sometimes the breakthrough comes after the stripping away.