Redux...the re-making of a watercolor painting using gouache...Canned Beauty

Canned Beauty   Watercolor/Gouache   10 x 6.5

From time to time, I reconsider older works that have lain fallow.  "Canned Beauty" was always a favorite of mine, but lacked sparkle.  It was rendered totally in transparent watercolor with a navy blue background.  Something about it tickled my fancy.  I decided to rework the background including gouache, a much more opaque water medium.  I used a bright blue-violet on top and a creamy white below.  These older works are exactly the ones on which  to experiment as the emotional attachment has usually waned.  In addition, improvements seem to appear quite simply given some distance and, perhaps, more experience.  I reworked 4 paintings that day....each was improved in my opinion.  The resultant work has a primitive chunky quality that I admire and is definitely more colorful.  Sometimes the reworks provide solutions that will help expand the visual repertoire for future work.

In watercolor painting I usually hope for a transparent solution.  In oils, solutions are often reached after layers of attempts.....and I always appreciate those earlier layered attempts showing through a bit.  I enjoy seeing the struggle, the adventure.

"Canned Beauty" became a different work.  Different is good.  Nothing Ventured Nothing Gained.