Touching Up a Vintage Painting

I love painting and wish I had more time to dedicate to it. It's really relaxing, and there's something so refreshing about going into that pure creation mode. It's a nice counterbalance to all the over-thinking and drawn out time lines that happen with interior design. :) I usually paint flowers or landscapes, just for family and friends, but I would really love to take a portraiture class this year. I'd love to paint portraits of my own kids and I think it would be cool to make portraits for really special gifts. If anyone has any leads on great painting classes here in the city, I'm all ears!

On a related subject, collecting vintage portraits is sort of a trendy thing that I never really got on board with. Maybe I'm too sentimental and it seems a little strange to hang paintings of strangers. Then a couple weeks ago this beautiful vintage portrait caught my eye as I was leaving the Chelsea flea. Isn't she pretty? I love the colors and I like her thoughtful expression.

I had already spent almost all my cash that day so I almost didn't ask the dealer for a price. I thought for sure she would want at least $100 or $200, even though the painting needed some restoration. She wanted $15! SOLD!

When I got home I pulled out some oil paints in the colors that had flaked off on her dress.

It was a pretty easy fix. You sort of just lightly mix the colors you need with a palette knife and then place the colors down.

I added the swipe down the middle here. Because I didn't overmix there are highlights and lowlights that give the fabric of her dress some depth.

The next step was to sort of feather the new paint into the old.

And the painting was fixed in about 5 minutes! Easy!

Obviously I wouldn't have tried this with an expensive painting. Valuable art that needs repair should go to a professional restorer. But since I only spent a few dollars on this painting, I didn't mind trying to fix her myself.