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Thursday, September 1, 2016

Venice Crossroads -

Venice Crossroads, 30x30, oil on linen, available
Motivated by my recent visit to Tuscany, I pulled this painting out of the closest. It isn't that I didn't like this painting as it was; There was a lot I liked about it. It just felt a bit too dull for me. Even if it was overcast while I was in Venice 3 years ago, it was brighter in my memory than I had painted it.
Rereading the original blog post is always interesting! I don't disagree with any of it but I had been working on it then for almost a year. So there is no limit of time when I don't feel reworking a piece is called for.
In the painting below from two years ago I was going for a more local tone approach even though there was a sliver of light coming down. I am still going for the same thing but I added a bit of brightness to the colors and not as much atmosphere. I also reworked all the figures and gave them a bit more personality, yet not pulling anyone out. I defined the chairs and table a bit more showing more of the light hitting them. I think it aids the movement I want to create through the painting. A few areas got broken down a bit more. I ended up doing a bit more than I had expected as once you get started you see all kinds of things that need tweaking.

Venice Crossroads, original, 30x30, oil on linen



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The reworked painting definitely has more movement, which is good. Brightening it up also -- more remarkably to me -- effectively banished the rather claustrophobic atmosphere of the original.JF