German Lumpy is Loompy

Lumpy walks across the German fields and into my painting. He is a midsize dog living in Bad Liebenstein, Germany. His name in German and in my memory is pronounced Loompy. I always find it helpful to know how to pronounce names even when I read them silently to myself. Maybe that is from years of reading aloud as a mom or librarian. Well, regardless, I am working on pieces for the June gallery show in Sanford. We need new work to exhibit. No pressure, to create and be fresh and original. So I started a painting using a photo I took of Lumpy. He is my model, since I don't want to be anatomically correct, I have taken artistic license and given him a sex change. I was going to put a quote I find hilarious on the top of the painting, I guess this becomes an illustration at that point, does it? The quote by Groucho Marx is "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read." As you can see I tend to fill every inch of my pieces with detail. An empty space seems lacking. So here I am on the verge of filling every square inch with pattern or letters or something when an artist friend says,"that is a good painting as it is." Oh no terror in my heart, stop painting, no fill space, stop painting, no fill space with somebody else's witticisms. This artist's dilemma.