Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Letting go...


Red and Green SOLD
10 x 10
oil on wrapped canvas

I struggled all day yesterday with an old painting that had not been well planned in terms of composition or colors. Hours of trying to make corrections and wasting huge amounts of paint it was finally declared a failure and will be sent off with the garbage to the landfill tomorrow. I never reuse old canvases as I feel the past will slowly make it's way to the surface and rear it's ugly head! I had to go back to something fun with some promise of success since I haven't painted for a week. Not sure why red grapes can be so purple and still be called red and the green ones are not so blue in the painting. It's something to do with my camera I think and I keep forgetting to adjust the hues before I post. Oh well. Happy painting everyone.

7 comments:

Dana Cooper said...

Barb, these grapes are wonderful...filled with color and light...red, purple, green or blue!

Diana Marshall said...

I love these grapes with their soft bloom on the skins. Know what you mean about old paintings I have a few that deserve the bin!

Unknown said...

Didn't Van Gogh paint over his paintings all the time? As long as you sand them down a bit, they shouldn't give you any trouble. I love your painting. You captured the luminosity of the green and the dusty, deep purple of the red....gorgeous!

Unknown said...

Thanks so much Dana - no doubt I do love color even if it's just a splash amongst grays but usually I get carried away.

Unknown said...

Thanks Diana and Sheila for your compliments and yes Sheila you are right - the canvas could still be useful - I guess I need to quickly get it re gessoed so it's not sitting there tormenting me with glaring errors!

Marie Theron said...

Hi Barb, Matisse had changed one painting 22 times, and each step is recorded too. I love the grapes, bursting and full of juice. Lovely colours and technique too!

Unknown said...

Hi Marie, Okay I'm convinced - I'll keep it as a challenge to see if I can salvage it as I've only changed it 3 times so far. I just have to hide it for a while as I'm still all worked up about it - it's a rather large piece and quite a disappointment. It did motivate me to do these grapes though and I'm really happy with them. Thanks so much for the kind comments. Cheers Barb