It is said that artists never finish a work... they abandoned it.
This work is another of these Foundlings that I felt I needed to “push”. Starting with a brass,
plaque that had a beautiful Gothic pattern to it, a brass bird paperweight and an ornate candelabra, they were so striking separately that they must work well together. And yet, after being assembled together, they just didn’t “speak” well to each other. The square plaque overwhelmed the piece with all of its brass, the carved wood crown just never felt fully integrated into the box and for its commanding size, the finch couldn’t hold enough attention to be the focal point.
The first task was to remove the offending wooden crown. To soften all of the brass I added another texture with a brass frame. Although I was concerned that the frame would clash with the other patterns, it actually worked well and did soften all of the brass. This also added a lot of depth and levels to this Foundling. Lastly, although I have tended to shy away from always adding “tails” to my work, in this case the tail complimented the peak of the upside down frame. Goldfinch was now finally complete.