A few years ago, I whited out  a complete artwork.  The painting wasn’t working.   I scratched back into the wet white  paint. The effect that emerged pleasantly surprised me so, instead of disposing of the canvas, I kept the “new work”. 

More recently I’ve been consciously whiting out old paintings, not because I don’t like the work, but to transform them. This is an act of letting go to make way for something fresh to emerge. Transformation can be such a creative force. Even so, if I like the painting I’m overpainting there is always tinge of regret together with a sense of farewell.

These two white paintings are from a dragon series. The top one is abstract yet it still bears the traces of the original. In the bottom painting I turn the dragon shape into two figures. For me, they are mythical beings frolicking in the mist.

Letting go is not an act of obliteration or destruction. Far from it. In these experiments, the original works remain or contribute to the new artwork. Refraining from judging or comparing the old and the new can be challenging. Most of the time I see can it simply as a process of change. That is where the learning takes place.

See some of my Dragon paintings here
https://judetullochartist.com/portfolio/judetullochartist_alto-jpg/