Revisions

I rarely go back into a piece with changes once I consider it finished. I am usually on to something else and can easily distance myself from a painting that only days or weeks before had me completely captivated. 10 years ago I finished an 18 piece series called Red, Yellow, Blue. I remember that I had to quickly frame the work for an exhibition and have shown it several places since.

Recently, I was asked to donate a piece of art to the Fayetteville Museum of Art for a fund raising event. As I looked over my work, trying to decide which to give, I suddenly wanted to rework a few of the pieces from Red, Yellow, Blue. This series was an exercise in color recollection in which I paired colors and their given name with other colors to see if it stirred any other emotion than is typically expected. For example, I painted the word Red in a blue color. I worked with spray paint, acrylic paint, and charcoal and used all three primary colors (Red in red, red in yellow, red in blue, etc. as well as several small study blocks). The result was pretty cool, especially the pieces in which I used charcoal to bring out specific parts, blurring the lines between foreground and background. At the time, I decided to leave a few without any charcoal added. Over the years I always consider those the "weaker" pieces.

So a couple of days ago I decided to revise one called "Red/Blue". I'm pleased with the end result. Perhaps this will be the piece I donate to the museum...


Before


Reworking...


...reworking...


Finished