Sunday, August 28, 2011

Chamberlin Ranch Oaks Repaint

"Chamberlin Ranch Oaks"
6" X 8" Oil on Panel
This small painting was painted about a year ago. I recently had this in the Silent auction during the Los Olivos Quick Draw event and it sold to a really nice woman from Hermosa Beach, CA. I had wanted to try and paint another version of the small painting to push the colors and add more detail in the foreground. Before the Quick Draw I grabbed a 16"X20" canvas that had a Marine painting on it and decided to paint over it. 
Normally when painting over an old painting I'd sand off any lumps of old paint and then wipe it with a mixture of yellow ochre or indian yellow and turpintine first. This gives you a more even tone to paint over and fresh paint for the new paint to stick to. Instead I just wiped it down with a very diluted mix of turpentine and copal and once it was tacky I painted away without a tinted ground. This forced me to paint thicker since I tend to paint thin. 
"Oaks At Chamberlin Ranch"
16"X20" Oil on Canvas
There were slight changes to the newer painting since I wasn't trying to copy the original but just use it as a reference. I got most of the painting in before delivering the small painting on Thursday night to the auction. After the weekend event was over I came back to the new painting and finished it off. I really pushed the colors and detail which was the point of it all. I like the changes and added color/detail of the new painting. It is a good thing to try doing these with ones own work. There is a normal pressure with every painting as you try to make it a good painting of course but in doing a second painting I found that pressure was not there. I already had a good painting so there was a lot more freedom to experiment and make changes here regardless of the outcome...if something didn't work I could always just wipe it down or wipe the whole painting down and start over. Things went well on this one so I'm happy with the effort.  

A detail of the tree and foreground....

4 comments:

Dianne said...

I really like the second one. Pushing the colors worked, that touch of red in the foreground and the more intense light further back give it life.
I wonder if painting over an old canvas takes some pressure off too? You know, not sitting down to a blank page.

Ron Guthrie said...

Hi Dianne,
Thanks for your comments. I really like the color changes with the newer version. Their seems to always be some bit of pressure with a blank canvas. Painting over an old painting is like saving a canvas and giving it another shot at becoming a good painting worth a buyers interest or eventual purchase. I think that tends to reduce the pressure on the artist. I think it just makes me feel good about that second chance so I tend to be in a better more relaxed mood when painting over a painting.

Marian Fortunati said...

I TOTALLY agree with Dianne. I actually like your larger painting a lot better than the little study that sold.

GREAT lesson, Ron!!!

Ron Guthrie said...

Hi Marian,
Thanks, I like the newer version too. The added color works nicely here and was pretty fun to paint.
Ron