Pickles 21.5"x21.5" oil on wood panel. This is a painting I finished about a year ago and decided to work on again, I was happy with it when I finished, I even had it in a show. But, I kept wondering if the color was right, the painting used to have a brown background and the tabletop was tan wood. The whole painting had a yellowish cast except for the tiny blue cap. I removed the varnish, sanded the painting a bit and decided to fix it. I changed the background to gray and the tabletop to white-ish and kicked up the greens a bit inside of the jar. Since the jar is transparent, the whole painting needed another coat. A new coat is much easier than a new painting, the drawing is already done and paint goes on really nicely over other paint of a similar value. I am really happy with the results. If the painting worked at all before it was the atmospheric murky green water in the jar and how it sort of glows around the pickles and acts like a filter on the pickles within. Getting rid of most of the color in the background now emphasizes the nuclear green as the point of the painting and at least for now I feel like the painting is working a lot better.
Here is what the painting looked like earlier this week. It is funny but I have a phantom color memory of the painting and it is hard for me to look at the painting as it is now with fresh eyes. Sometimes when I look at it it still looks yellowish, hopefully as I get used to the changes I will still like the painting.