I love how forgiving oil paints are! They are the easiest medium to paint over and make any changes or corrections you desire.

Case in point: Several years ago I completed a painting I titled “Inspiration.” I had found a picture of a grand piano that I wanted to place by a pool in my outdoor scene. It just felt like a great place to inspire me to want to play music in such a setting, bringing the beauty of the place into my soul!

Later when my musician aunt and uncle visited me from New Jersey, they pointed out that the grand piano was actually a backward image, and that the top should open the opposite way. Having had a grand piano, I immediately saw they were right! Surprised that I hadn’t noticed that important detail before, I decided to rectify the situation and repaint it. However, with other new paintings in the works, somehow that intention got left on the back burner.

Recently I discovered the painting hidden away and thought it was time to give it new life. This time I thought I would rather make it a relaxing retreat and more realistic to what one would expect to see in such a place. I was ready to bring inspiration to a new place!

It was bittersweet to paint out the piano, but I had in mind a bright, happy pop of colorful flowers to fill the spot on the pool decking, along with a few other tweaks that would enhance the painting, giving the eye more places to visit, and even opening up the water view off in the distance for more depth in the painting.

As you can see from the completed painting, it is not difficult to paint out and paint in whatever you would like, even in a painting several years old. Now I am much happier with the alignment and colors and the different angles lining up better. It feels easier for me to put myself into this pool paradise and be inspired once again each time I looked at the new “Inspiration” painting.

I hope this will encourage any of you artists not to be satisfied with something that isn’t working for you and just go ahead and paint out the old and paint in the new.

Hmmm! Maybe that could be a good analogy for life these days as well! Just paint a new vision of the inspiring future that would compel you to think and live in a higher state of mind and flow in your life! And keep gazing at it – until you are standing in the middle of that scene yourself! Isn’t that how dreams come true?!