Before and After Challenge 2011
It’s been a long time since we had a Before and After Challenge. Would you like to do it again? For basic instructions for how it works, click on the above link. I’d also like to add that if you don’t already have images of something you’ve redone, you can start re-working an orphaned work of art now if you like, and document the process with pictures. We’ll wait till you’re ready. There is no deadline. We’ll take things as they come.
You can send both your before and after images to martha(dot)marshall(at)gmail(dot)com with your permission to show them on the blog. Or, if you prefer, you can post them to your own blog, send me a link, and I’ll publish that for you. If you do send them directly to me, in order to keep from overwhelming WordPress, please reduce your images to 72 dpi and under 6 inches. If there are more stages that you’d like to share, that’s OK too.
Talk about the thought process that led you through your changes. Let’s have fun and pretend we’re creating together. As before, there is no critique. Just a discussion of interesting possibilities, roads not taken, and explorations into the unknown.
My Personal Challenge
I’m going to take you through this one that I’m working on, and I promise to show it through all the changes, for better or worse.
Here is a start from today’s session, painting over a canvas that did not stand the test of time in my estimation. The painting I chose for sacrificing is the one at the bottom. It was titled “Figment” and is 30 inches square on gallery wrap canvas. The current state of the painting is shown above it. The paint is very thick and goopy, so I have to keep it lying flat until it dries. Then there will be more layers. The cloudy area is clear acrylic gel. When it dries you will see the original color underneath it.
Top - After Bottom - Before
I want the new painting to be part of my Echoes series, like these:
Echoes I - Acrylic on Canvas, 12 x 12" - Sold
I hope you decide to participate in the Before and After Challenge.
An Artist's Journal 
The before is lovely and quiet but the after has wonderful depth. The layers underneath usually make the top layer better!
Thanks for the feedback, Virginia. It’s so different from the original, which was really part of a series of four that I did all at one time. They never did really fit into my usual body of work. This is going to be fun.
What a great idea – i have just finished repainting some panels and am living with them for a bit before i move on to more changes or leave them as is. the aha is to take picutures as I go along so i will today. THEN i have to figure out how to get my blog working (steep curve for some reason – i am acquainted with resistance!) so i can post them for others to look at.
i like what you are doing here martha…