Must See Painting Transformation

'Buried Treasure'            11x14           pastel         ©Karen Margulis
available $175

 This may be my favorite painting transformation yet. I love taking older or unfinished paintings and transforming them into something new. I usually stick pretty close to the original image. Occasionally I wipe off the whole painting and start over. This painting underwent an unexpected transformation and I am happy I let the painting do the talking!

The original unfinished demo

The painting began life as a plein air demo for my workshop last month in Texas. The lesson for the demo was on creating depth. I didn't really resolve the painting since it was a visual aid for a lesson. I pulled it out today and decided to work on it some more.

Since it was on a piece of mounted Uart (True Grit Panel from French Canvas) I knew I could easily do an alcohol wash to simplify the busy painting. My intention was to redo the painting creating a foggy moody feeling. I wanted to turn the path in silvery water.

After using some rubbing alcohol and a brush.

 Notice how dark the underpainting got after the alcohol wash. I did not brush off any pastel so it did get a bit thick in places.  I flipped through my reference photos while I waited for the alcohol wash to dry. I found a moody marsh scene that was perfect but I also found a wildflower meadow that caught my eye. Could I turn this painting into a meadow with pink flowers?  Why not! The dark shapes of the underpainting formed the perfect bones for the meadow.

Blocking in the new painting

I tested out my idea by blocking in a dark path and a few flowers. I decided it would work!  I started by painting wide areas of grasses pulling them up into the sky. Then I repainted the sky a pale blue and pulled it down into the grass.

My intention was to take photos of the next steps but I totally entered that zone when nothing else mattered but the painting. I completely enjoyed building up layers of flowers and grass. I did use several layers of workable fixative and pastel. You can see the texture created by these layers if you click and enlarge the photo.

close up

I'm not sure I ever would have guessed that the painting started life as a traditional landscape scene. I was so much fun to transform! Now back to wedding duties! We are in countdown mode!

TRY THIS: If you have a painting that needs help. Why not just change the subject! It can be quite liberating to start over. An alcohol wash on sanded paper gives you a blank canvas to play on!