There is always a feel- good factor about revamping your paintings; improvising and giving an extra dash of color that suddenly changes the way you have looked at it for years. Sure you have your limitations as an artist, but i would simply consider it as an exercise to broaden our creative senses. We never know what we might end up with.
The image you see above , is a painting I completed almost twenty years ago. It hung on the brick wall of my home back in kerala. Vacation time was around the corner and my family and I went on our yearly visit to our native. Seeing this painting hung in the living room of my house, I could feel my creative senses broadening. So many changes could be made to make it look a lot better. I asked my mother. After showing slight hesitation , she agreed on a condition that I bring it back on the next visit.
My reference for this particular painting was a wall calendar. The two little birds amused me in some weird way. At that point of time, I never realized that learning and reading up on subjects mattered while painting. I gave the birds colors of my choice; used up my freedom. (You may ask me anything regarding my techniques, but nothing about the species of the bird or flowers).
I started working on my 20 year old painting. I didn't see the need to change the way the birds looked. I left it as it was. What I did do was add more leaves and stems to the foliage to better the structure of the image. I made the two branches more prominent. I think you would agree that it did give a good composition to the painting. I used up the negative space by adding some sky there. ( Negative Space, speaking in artistic terms, refers to the space around and between the subject(s) of an image).
I am just glad that I could do justice to this painting even if it was after 20 years; extending the creative boundary within the limitations.
