Why I Might Paint Over a Painting

There are people out there that are shocked when I tell them I have painted over paintings. Why do I do this? It's quite simple. It didn't meet my standards.

It could be things like:
• bad technique
     - including poor paint handling, poor drawing skills, texture and/or color palette
• poor composition
• uninteresting subject matter
     - sometimes an interesting thought doesn't translate to an interesting painting

A sub-standard painting by me from several years ago.

This painting never became what I wanted it to be, and I ended up pushing paint around for far too long. I will just say it is one that is now something else.

I was just reading in the book The Repeating Image, "Infrared spectometry has revealed that he (Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot) originally included three slender trees to the right of the central tree. The work was also signed on two separate occasions, first in brown with the date '1864' and then in red."

This is so validating. If the masters felt their work needed reworking, then ahhh.... I have permission to do the same.

Postscript
When one of my collectors invites me into their homes to show me where they have hung their painting(s) they are so proud and I am too. I have yet to look at a painting even from many years ago that is now on the wall of a collector and feel that it isn't up to my standards. By painting over a painting when it needs it, I only see work that I am proud of now and in the future.