Sometimes a painting starts ONE way and then "morphs" into a completely different painting altogether. Such was the case of an acrylic marbling painting I started this spring in anticipation of Portland's annual Rose Show Festival. This year's theme was "Rockin' Roses" (who picks these themes, I wonder?).
My original concept seemed fairly straightforward (or so I thought). I had done a few previous versions of this dancing couple and I thought I'd paint them on a red/white marbled background. I thought maybe I'd add a jukebox, but this vertical orientation made it hard to fit it in. So....I turned the whole thing into a horizontal painting and decided that the couple would be sitting in an old fashioned malt shop. Maybe I could put a jukebox on the left hand side of the painting?
Hm...that left a blank space on the right hand side---I tried putting a sauntering bobby-soxer into the foreground, but she was at an odd angle (that's what I get for trying to make this stuff up) and that jukebox was proving to be a hassle to paint--it didn't flow with the rest of the painting, either. At this point, I decided to submit a different painting for the Rose Show (good thing--because "On The Rocks with a Twist" won an honorable mention).
A month or so later, while painting in my studio, I came across this failed, abandoned painting, and decided to once more shift the painting BACK to a vertical--and completely change the subject matter one more time.
Ah...that's better---this one is still in progress, but already I'm liking it better than the earlier drafts. Amazing how many coats of paint you can do in acrylics (this is on canvas, so it really holds the paint). Not much of the original painting is left, but still there are some faint indications of the previous shapes. Maybe I should call this one "What Lies Beneath".
My original concept seemed fairly straightforward (or so I thought). I had done a few previous versions of this dancing couple and I thought I'd paint them on a red/white marbled background. I thought maybe I'd add a jukebox, but this vertical orientation made it hard to fit it in. So....I turned the whole thing into a horizontal painting and decided that the couple would be sitting in an old fashioned malt shop. Maybe I could put a jukebox on the left hand side of the painting?
Hm...that left a blank space on the right hand side---I tried putting a sauntering bobby-soxer into the foreground, but she was at an odd angle (that's what I get for trying to make this stuff up) and that jukebox was proving to be a hassle to paint--it didn't flow with the rest of the painting, either. At this point, I decided to submit a different painting for the Rose Show (good thing--because "On The Rocks with a Twist" won an honorable mention).
A month or so later, while painting in my studio, I came across this failed, abandoned painting, and decided to once more shift the painting BACK to a vertical--and completely change the subject matter one more time.
Ah...that's better---this one is still in progress, but already I'm liking it better than the earlier drafts. Amazing how many coats of paint you can do in acrylics (this is on canvas, so it really holds the paint). Not much of the original painting is left, but still there are some faint indications of the previous shapes. Maybe I should call this one "What Lies Beneath".
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