A few weeks ago I dug an old painting on canvas out from under the stairs. I guess I had put it there with a bunch of stuff just to get it out of the way. I was doing some reorganizing and cleaning up in the basement, a project that seems to be permanently ongoing. This painting was an abstract, the first non-objective abstract painting I had ever painted and I only did it as a class assignment as I wasn't really interested in painting abstract at the time, and even now only do that on occasion. However, I had never thrown this painting away. Why not? I've thrown many other paintings away, so why not this one, why have I been keeping it around all these years?
I carried the painting up to my studio and stood it up at the end of the table where it would be out of the way but easily accessible...and then promptly ignored it. That is until this week, I took the old painting out, looked it over and decided it was worth a good work over.
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| "Red and Blue Make Violet" Acrylic 20" X 20" |
I started by adding texture using heavy gel medium. The painting already had texture but I felt it could use more. After the medium had dried I started adjusting the painting. I mostly kept the same composition and colors, though there is more dark area in it now and I increased the size and brightness of the light area in the lower middle. I also intensified the colors a bit as the painting was somewhat dull but not too much because I wanted to keep it dark and moody overall. Another thing I did was spray water on it while paint was still wet to cause some runs, the painting didn't have this element before and I do think it was an improvement.
I'm glad I picked this old painting up and played with it again, even though abstract isn't really my thing I might do some more in a similar vein.
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