Lately I've been digging out some old not very effective artworks and giving them new life. Here are 4 that I just finished and finally quite happy with. Sometimes revival of old proves to be wrong move, when people say that they love old version better, but important thing is that you as an artist happy with final result. Bottom line is: we are not making art to please others, unless it's commissioned work. This one is acrylic on canvas, painted with a small palette knife, but I redone her with brush and more fresh realistic skin tone. Values were also corrected which I think made it more effective. "Listener":
She used to be a simple monoprint in oils, so I gave her a couple of fresh oil layers. "She spoke the truth":
Update in oils. "On the road you warned me about, I go with wavering heart":
Below work was done on 2006, 9 years ago, I used to live in Micronesian islands then, and photographed this native girl somewhere on the road. It might have been my first ever attempt to paint a face, after years of still life, flowers and journaling. So, yea, she was flat and uninteresting and collected dust in my studio ever since. I was not happy with the artwork, but could not give up on it and dragged her all the way from Micronesia to South Africa (24'X30'):
So I gave her a fresh new life and named her "Spring". I painted her face, then Tallulah joined me and helped me to collage lives and paint the tree. Tallulah's free and fearless influence is obvious here and I enjoyed her fresh approach. It is now framed and gracing a wall in Tallulah's blue bedroom. Our first collaboration:
