Adapting the image

With all the pressure on me to get together enough paintings for the summer exhibition, I have been looking at my portfolio to see what I can use.
It seems to me that even though Art is very subjective, and what one likes, the other might hate, there are fashions and trends in Art. We, all of us,develop our style over the years, and some artists make quite radical changes to what they do. Shirley Travena is a good example of this. I saw her demonstrate a couple of times, producing 2 of her classic florals. However she is now very taken with her attempts at painting the landscape, and I am sure she will develop this side of her work. I have changed the style of my work quite a lot over the last few years and some of the work seems quite passe to me and would not fit in with what I am trying to do at the moment.

I have, therefore been having a look at some of my earlier work, with the idea of bringing it a bit more in line with my present painting style. I have recently been painting florals and still lifes with much darker backgrounds so I thought I would add backgrounds to a few to see how it worked.

In my opinion, these paintings are now better for the addition of the darker background, and hopefully they will fit more comfortably with my newer work.
Today I have had a go at a large acrylic canvas in the same way and the painting is sat in the studio drying, and the impact is certainly, for me, much more immediate. See what you think.