Often I will not be able to complete a painting during the time the model poses. I painted this woman at the Scottsdale Artists School during an open studio session. It was a five hour pose and when I was finished I had a rough idea of the color, values and position of everything. Because it was such a complicated scene, I didn't have time to put in much detail. Flash forward three years. I am going through my older paintings, trying to decide which ones to save and which ones to gesso over and re-use and I come across this one.
I will gesso over a canvas once and create en entirely different painting if there isn't much texture on the canvas. Sometimes the painted underpainting provides a really nice element and complements the painting on top.
For this re-work I had no photos of the model since she had requested that we not take any. At the time Daniel, who is the general manager at the school now, was just starting his job as the model coordinator. He did such an awesome job on this set-up with the composition that I decided to save her and try to revive her. It wasn't too difficult to consolidate values and smooth out skin tones. I am putting up the old painting so you can see what she looked like before. The basic lines and shapes are there but the "finesse" was missing.
Now I think she looks like an ancient temptress so I have renamed her Bathsheba.
14" x 18" oil on linen
OLD VERSION
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