Taking on an old painting

A painting I did in 2007 towards the beginning of my long(!) career was very competent for the stage I was at. However it lacked some character and was a bit garish. This week I decided I was going to paint on top of it to bring it closer to my approval. It was painted entirely in acrylics, which you may know is an acceptable base for oil paint from an archival point of view.

The scene is a crane mounting on a lock on the River Rhone at sunset,

Here is the painting in acrylics before modification. The photo is also from 2007

The painting has an overall color cast which makes it a little uninteresting. This was before I had discovered some of the magic that colors can have when interacting with each other.

By the way you can see four stages of the painting I put up on my site at the time.

My plan was vague, but I knew I wanted some blue/violet in there to vibrate with the oranges.

Here is the painting in its new life after a first session.

I hope you will agree that it is already beginning to get better. I washed ultramarine blue over all the dark parts, then toned down the oranges put some blue/violet in the clouds.

For the painters, I am doing the first stages in alkyd (fast drying) oils and will finish in classical oil paints.

I will post as it develops.