Changes to a painting

When a painting doesn't work even if you kind of like it then it is important that you keep on working with it even if it means a totally new direction for the piece. I am going to show you the before and now version of the piece. I have always maintained that a less than successful painting is not going to improve with age, it is not a good vintage wine that just needs time. So I like the idea of the original because it was my entry into the Africa series but it was too derivative of a whole line of painters and not a very good derivation. So over the next few days I plan to really get into this one and I hope it will work out.

Searching and Searching

I spent some time looking at some Franz kline pieces and found his use of overlays of color on top of the ground to be very powerful when played against the starkness of black symbols. For this piece I use a blue ground and came back over it with a very pail white wash that was reinforced with strong passages of white appied with a pallette knife. It definitely is something that makes me wonder if there is more here for me to work on. This is a really small study 16 x 16 and I am planning on giving it some air in a more grand scale.