Evolution of a Painting #2
A study of a painting that took way too long (and the mission to rescue it).
After my last post - Evolution of a Painting #1 (The Merry Widow) - I thought I’d consider another, larger piece, ‘Woman with Flowers’ that I’ve recently completed. I spent months and months doing nothing on it (into the years) then it evolved quickly over a short period of time.
2023
Talk about a slow start.
Having stretched the canvas (and sized and primed it), I added a base layer of yellow umber with a touch of yellow ochre (I think). After the initial drawing in mid April 2023, which I tentatively blocked in, I adding some colour and marks around her but not a lot else,
I did nothing until early Autumn when I added in the flowers (from my garden) and painted (badly) a bit more detail into her face and eyes. Pretty glacial, and it showed.
2024
2024 was a non-event for the painting. Although I did almost ruin it out of frustration by adding a layer of thick pale green to her. My intention was to shake things up but, as the painting was at such a rudimentary stage, it was all a bit pointless. Most of it would disappear under the subsequent paint layers (though a little remained in the final edit).
2025
It took until last year in the summer months of June and July to start back. When paintings are left like this, you get incredibly frustrated and wonder what the point is. All momentum, any momentum, is lost and it’s like starting over but with less enthusiasm.
Still, I was convinced there was a painting there somewhere and with renewed determination I started to give it due attention.
Forgive the colour variations in the photography above, but you can start to see some progression as I started to redraw her.
A decision was made to obliterate the left eye in order to create a sense of intrigue and depth. I also applied some spray paint to loosen things up a little. I softened the face around the eye and the mouth, intending for it to be an impressionistic portrait - and invariably to hide my own deficiencies! I also started drawing a little of the lace cardigan and softening the colours around the body introducing violets.
Breakthrough - Late July ( then sporadically through to December 2025).
The real breakthrough with any painting comes with simply doing it, not half-hearted or on-and-off, but actually putting in the hard yards and concentrating with real intent - just you and the painting. Everything else becomes redundant and that’s when real progression can be made.
Above you can see I’ve introduced a blue background (left), largely removing the green. Fuchsia and magentas started to take colour prominence too and these were delicately introduced to the skin tones. More definition to the eye, nose and mouth followed, slightly altering her gaze as I went. I made more progress towards the end of the year (right), defining the lace along with the florals and adding spray paint motifs - asterisk and cloud - and brushstrokes ‘glitches’.
2026 - To Completion
Knowing that it was reaching a conclusion of sorts (and with the London ArtFair upcoming), I was able to be a little more playful in parts, adding colour, marks, spray paint, stencils (chat bubble, cloud), writing and sharpening up features like the flowers, lace and eye. I’m no portrait painter but I wanted to convey a sense of impermanence, of memory and of depth to the piece.
Finally, a layer of satin Ganvar varnish to unify the whole thing. Beautiful.
In retrospect, and with renewed vigour, motivation and a clearer direction, I’ll never leave a piece to sit there unloved for that length of time again. Whilst I’m pretty happy with the work, it’s suffered a little through neglect.
But I’ve learnt a lot through these failures and I’ll take them onboard and endeavour to paint with more clarity and focus.
