Reworking an old painting I was almost ready to throw away.
I’m lucky enough to call this view my backyard—just a 30-minute drive, and I started painting this 3 years ago but got so bored with it that I buried it in my studio. I dug it out this month, trying to decide whether to rework, redo or "frisbee". Honestly, everyone every local artist and their dog paints this scene where I live because there's a marvelous vantage point over the river. Emboldened by my recent excitement of painting more expressively, I reworked this with bolder colors and brush strokes. I even threw in a little expressive splashing, which I often use with my watercolors. Who knew you could do oil paint splashes?—not me! (note: The shadow blues in the shrubs to the left are darker and much deeper in real life, but get lost when I photograph it outside where I work.)
This scene portrays Watchman Peak standing as a sentry over the Virgin River winding through Zion’s canyon, where warm autumn foliage rings the water like an audience from their canyon seats to the towering sunlit cliffs blush with pinks and ochres. Lively brushwork provides a sense of jubilation, giving the trees and river movement and texture, while a broad sky balances the composition. It’s a peaceful yet energetic landscape born from long afternoons of wandering the trails and watching light continually change the colors of the rock throughout the day. I'm noticing that all of my paintings these days blend that peaceful happy place kind of feel with wild expressive emotion at the same time---much like my own personality I am told.
Three years buried in the studio, and you almost let it go. That moment of standing over an old piece, weighing whether it deserves another chance or a flight across the room, is one of the most honest conversations an artist can have with their own work.
What strikes me is that you didn't just rescue the painting. You brought something new to it. The version of you who started it three years ago couldn't have painted it the way you just did. The bolder colors, the looser strokes, the willingness to let expression lead instead of precision. That isn't just reworking a canvas. That's proof you've been growing, even during the seasons when it didn't feel like it.
And painting a scene that every local artist knows, the one everyone and their dog has painted from that same vantage point, and finding your own voice inside it anyway? That's not repetition. That's you claiming the view as yours.
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