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Friday, February 07, 2020

Time to Reimagine a Big Painting!


'A Little Piece of Heaven'                    18x24                pastel                ©Karen Margulis
available $425
  Should a Demo painting be finished? Often I do not finish a demo in a workshop or presentation. Demos are teaching opportunities. Their purpose  is to help me demonstrate concepts. I like to talk about what I am doing and answer questions. In a workshop  I  also like to make sure the students have time to paint so I don't wish to take up hours to demo. 

On Tuesday I had the honor and pleasure to do a presentation and demo for the Booth Artist Guild in Cartersville, Georgia. It was so much fun! I shared a lesson on how to create better landscapes and I did a pastel demo with a watercolor underpainting. I was running short on time so I didn't get to finish the demo. Here it is in the photo below.



The original demo

I had to decide if I wanted to finish the scene I had started in the demo......or REIMAGINE and create a new reality. The demo served its purpose....teaching my technique for a pastel painting but I wasn't excited to finish it. It was time to reimagine.

 re·im·ag·ine
ˌrēiˈmajən/
verb
  1. reinterpret (an event, work of art, etc.) imaginatively; rethink.



    When I brushed off the pastel and added some alcohol to create a mysterious underpainting I had to find a subject to fit this new ghost image.  I gapped to pull out the perfect photo. It fit almost exactly to the underpainting. It was meant to be!  I truly enjoyed the challenge of reimagining the painting and taking advantage of a nice big mounted bart board!


Brush off the pastel and wet with alcohol

Reimagine the subject

The first few layers blocked in


Evaluating the painting to decide on finishing touches

1 comment:

Hyn Patty said...

I really love this painting. One of my favorites I've seen you do - but then I like seeing more detail, layers, a sense of distance. Luminous color even in the mountains. If I could afford it I would not be sad at all to have this piece in my home. Gorgeous. Clearly this reworking of older paintings for ghostly and unexpected underpaintings works well to inspire you! I'm going to have to try this more often myself.