rework it #1

My Dragon's Hoard

I have hundreds of paintings in my house. I don't think everybody has this many paintings. Strangely I have a very few on my walls they're all in plastic boxes in the basement. I analyze paintings so seeing them when I am trying to rest is not restful. I am going to start reworking some of the ones that I want rework, older works. I am a different painter now. I used to use acrylic and now I am using oil paint. My skill set has grown as I have been teaching painting for years. Problem solving others paintings builds skills.

This is the first one that I have re-worked. Originally it started as an in class demonstration. I always loved it's strong boldness. It's graphic quality made by the simplification of shapes and the strong brown black against a bright yellow. But I could see lots of pencil outlines underneath the transparent yellow and it just never seemed quite finished even though I really liked it.

Here is my rework I just added tons more stuff:

I tucked 3 baby goslings under the wing.  

I patterned the wing.

I added more fluffs from the nest coming forward.

I added landscape with water.

One of the biggest changes my work and the last couple years is that I like to put distance in my painting to let the viewer have freedom and escape into it. I used to like flat surfaces that would block and be a wall but now I like this false distance, a meditation part of a painting. I have the river curve around the bend, I have the perspective of the further shore being paler and tree lines reducing the distance.

I hope this is a good idea. I hope I not wrecking all my old stuff but when I have so many paintings I really I think that some of them could be better. If not better just feel finished to me.

My Dragon's Hoard of my past paintings. Hey that's a good title for this!🐊