Paintings, like life, are Built in Layers

Sometimes a painting calls to you later.

This painting was done in early 2015. It was fine for the experience I was seeking at the time: to create a likeness with a bit of an abstract background. But today, I felt it needed more. Sometimes, paintings, like life, need to be reworked a bit. I photographed my painting, then with the Diana iphone app, I layered an image of our gorgeous geraniums from our deck. They are hearty, and still in glorious deep reds with green velvet leaves. It’s fascinating to see how apps work, and how they can add to an existing work. Not only did the rich reds color my woman, but also the background, her skin, her face. I liked it very much, and proceeded to add them to my work. Here’s the app image:

The flowers create a mystical aura that coincides with the far off look on her face. This was totally unexpected, but welcome. As I worked, the flowers seemed to be coming from her mouth, as though her very words were birthing a flow of red flowers, buds, and blooms. It was evolving in ways I had never anticipated. She was developing new layers of meaning, universal symbolism, deep jewel tones of color, and the sensual traits of Nature and Flowers. Areas were transparent where others were made more intense. The resulting image is so much more than I anticipated. The title is now, “She Speaks the Language of Flowers”…