Basketful O’ Jo (revisited) WORK-IN-PROGRESS
6 x 6 inches • oil on GessobordTM
In all the years I’ve been shipping paintings, I’ve never had a problem with them being damaged in transit until this past year, when I had two paintings returned to me for repair. The first one I was able to fix like new, no problem, and its new owner is very happy with it. This one, however, is being very stubborn about being glued to a second board for support, and just won’t stick, in spite of my trying several different adhesives -- maybe because of the cold or the humidity. Anyway, the very understanding new owner and I have agreed on my repainting the subject.
Once I knew I would be painting a new Basketful O’ Jo, I had the choice of:
A) trying to copy my first painting, or
B) putting that one out of sight and just starting again from my reference photo.
I thought option B would be the better choice. Mostly I was kind of curious to see how much difference there would turn out to be between the old painting and the new. One basic thing I’ve done differently is the underpainting: the first time I did the entire underpainting in glazes of phthalo blue and Prussian blue; and for this second painting I used vivid Naphthol red for the area which will be the green wall on the left and the bunch of flowers nestled in the basket behind Jo. I still used the phthalo blue everywhere else, adding just a touch of green to Jo and a glaze of the red to the door, making it a luscious purple. I can hardly wait to see how my Santa Fé blue door looks over that!
When I came to my stopping point today I put the paintings side by side and I must say I like the new one much better so far. (Whew!)
I’m still not quite finished with Jo’s face, and it may be my imagination, but I think she looks a touch less grumpy at having her nap interrupted.
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