Saving Grace

If you're using acrylics there's more flexibility when
a painting doesn't work. In my experience unless
you absolutely can't look at a piece -- and most of the time
even then -- the thing can be saved. Some of my favorite work
was rescued after a disappointing first showing, or a period
of gestation. I don't know how to explain it.

Changing a painting starts with analyzing what's
not working. In this case the sitter's face
and body were good, but her hair, the
background, her costume, even the chair and pillows all
needed work. I started by reducing and
changing her hair. I applied a blue undercoat
over her old hairdo which included a
headband that did not read right.
Then I painted the background -- first with
the dark blue on your right, then with an orangey
tan undercoat on the other side.

Right now I have several small things on the go, and none
of them is at the right place to show. What I failed to see
was the large 3 by 4 foot work on the easel which I
am working on slowly, slowly. The hard part of a rescue
is the helicopter hovering over the sinking ship, or the
planes coming in with the water bombs to save the
house just before the fire hits. In painting terms it's the
first stage, when you reblock the painting over top of
what can be saved. At this stage the old work is ugly, and
only pure faith and a sense of possibility keeps me going.

When the undercoat was dry I applied a loose coat
of bright yellow to create a glow behind the model.
I blocked in her ear, and started changing her
hair. That's as far as I got today. I'm just showing
you the part of the painting I'm working on. It's
actually a full figure and 36 x 48 inches.

But the good thing is the vision of what can be, the sense
of experimentation, and the knowledge that I know more
now than I knew that first time out, whether it was a
month ago, or a few years ago. Then my restoration instinct
helps salvage the good and turn that into a brand new painting.
Timing? Enough time has to have passed that I forget
what I was trying to do originally, and can move on to
making something different.

Have a wow!-you-know-what-this-thing-looks-good day.