The Diptych. A Painting Re-envisioned.

Above: The old painting. 24x24 mixed media on stretched canvas. 

I forced myself to sit and paint two new paintings this week... and while I was working on those two paintings, I grabbed this tired number from my kitchen wall...where it has been hanging, silently for at least two years. 

Evidence.

SO soo sooo many times I had passed by that painting while giving it the evil eye. The composition bothered me..and it's there...on the corner of Boardwalk and Main...in the heart of my small kitchen. Man...did this painting bother me. 

In progress.

Maybe it was the size of the painting that was bothering me... Shown above, my latest painting to come home from a stay in the gallery. (This painting is also shown in my book...recognize it?) The idea came to me to make this painting (on the right) that I love so much, a sibling. They would hang on the wall together.... It was challenging.

Ahhhh.....much better now!

I painted that painting more than 3 years ago. My style has changed subtly... so I was worried I wouldn't be able to make a diptic in the first place. My palette has remained pretty unchanged though, so I plugged away for a few days....holding them together, hanging them, reversing their order, marking, glazing, collaging....until I felt I should STOP. Can you even recognize the new painting? Only the collage bones remain... I think they look great together.

Re-working an old painting is not challenging to me...it's the act of trying to match another painting that made me think so hard last week.... Do they mirror each other? Go together? Match? No. Yes. No. Like Destiny's Child...different outfits, same group.  

What do you think? Got anything bothering you on your walls? 

edit: It just came to me that I think I like them switched around....I'm going to switch them now. Art is always changing..and that's what keeps me interested.