Yes You can Wash Off an Old Painting on Pastelbord!

'Into the Lavender'          8x10         pastel         ©Karen Margulis

 I posted a video on Facebook and Instagram and got an interesting response. Why would I do it?!! I was washing off an old painting in the sink. I scrubbed at the pastel with a brush and watched the painting disappear down the drain. It felt great! But why????

The original Old painting done of a piece of Pastelbord

https://www.facebook.com/karenmargulisart/videos/10155624474935983/

Sometimes a painting just doesn't please us. We may have worked and reworked and still we aren't happy. We could throw it away. But when it is on a piece of sanded paper or board it is much better to wash off the old painting and start with a fresh idea. Not only will we have a new outlook we save money!

My painting was several years old. I remember it vaguely as an experimental piece. I discovered just how much I had experimented when I couldn't wash off the ink and marker! But the painting never really pleased me and it went into my recycle pile.

Since it was a piece of Pastelbord which is a hard board sanded surface, I knew I would be able to wash the painting of under running water. I took out an old stiff brush and put the painting in the sink. I usually have very good luck getting most of the painting removed. There may be a light stain or ghost image left. In this case I had a hard time because I had used permanent inks (I had forgotten) I was left with a more of the original painting than I wanted but I managed to use it to create a completely new painting.

I filmed the redo of the painting as a demo. You can see it on my YouTube Channel. Here is the link: 

               https://youtu.be/TDjxGgjFKEc                       

The pastels I used for the new painting

The painting as it looked at the end of the demo

a close up of the end of the pathway