Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Painting is about second chances

this painting was once called "base of the bridge" but i never liked the way the bridge looked in the painting so when i got it back from a gallery, i decided to change the whole painting. for some reason, at the time i painted this, i wanted to put bridges in all my paintings. i got over that quick when i found they hardly ever sell. so heres what you can do in such a situation. heres what it looks like after knifing new shapes and colors over the old one.
The Sail Over- 12x12
i totally got rid of the bridge and houses and made a few other changes like adding the sailboat, umbrella, and people. just changing a few shapes changed the whole painting. i like this one now.
if you have a painting thats not working draw some new shapes on it with a sharpie fineline marker and repaint all the old shapes over along with the new shapes. this way it all meshes together without looking reworked.

4 comments:

Frank Gardner said...

Now THAT is what I call a re tread. Looks good.
Glad your feeling better. I have been sick this week too, and it puts a damper on painting energy.

mike rooney studios said...

i'm trying to save paintings now where before i would just gesso over em and go on. just cant erase two hours of my life without at least trying to get a little something for it. but some are completely hopeless and cant be saved. people want to know why i charge so much (in their estimation) for a painting if it only takes around two hours. i say that painting took me 50 years to complete. its our sum experience that keeps the time down to an affordable figure. (that also applied to my sign painting business when i did that)
hope youre feeling better as well!

daviddrawsandpaints said...

I like to turn "failed" paintings upside-down and paint over them anew. The old colours show through where I 'miss' with the palette knife. I couldn't make up some of the effects and it gives the new painting a liveliness I like.
Both of your paintings here are pretty good but the re-do is simpler and fresher.
Cheers.

mike rooney studios said...

thanks for the kind words david-
i never really liked the first one but you gotta eat so i took it to a gallery. when i saw it wasnt going to sell anytime soon i took it back and then reworked it. its sitting in another gallery and no one knows the mess that was underneath that new paint but us. thanks for the idea about turning it upside down. i'm gonna steal that one!