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.

Inspiration...

Canned Beauty   watercolor/gouache   10 x 6.5

can come from anywhere, even the oft overlooked, especially the oft overlooked.  A recent glossy home decor magazine featured an article where an editor picked her 10 favorite things.  The one that caught my eye was a vase, I believe of mercury glass, that resembled an aluminum can.  And, of course, it was for that reason that it was deemed beautiful.  My brain wondered:  "And why not the aluminum can itself"?  Aluminum cans teach a variety of lessons:  the ever-difficult ellipse as well as reflective qualities that are not contiguous, but ridged.  Oh boy....what an assignment.  We had also been discussing the use of black.  Instead of using black from a tube, which is a dead dark that creates visual holes in paintings, we discussed the formula of red + green + blue = black.  Using the particular red, green and blue hues already determined for a particular work will produce a dark that harmonizes with the rest of the painting.  And......one of my favorites.....using one or two of those in dominance will produce a black with a particular cast...i.e. reddish-black, bluish-black, etc.  (this aspect is easily seen in black garments)

"Canned Beauty" was done that class period.  I slanted my dark hues to produce a purplish-black to, hopefully, play off of the vibrant yellow flowers.  Despite its darkness, I like it very much.