Painting over Paintings

OK - part of my artistic slump in recent weeks was that I was stuck in a few paintings that I really didn't want to paint. There is a place for discipline, and a place for "painting what you want" (see my profile on my website for a more colorful rendition of this idea by one of the more influential art teachers along my journey - Marvin Saltzman).

So I painted over that church painting - it worked small, but it was a yawn blown up larger (something else I learned to see thanks to Marvin Saltzman). Even though it started large, it never seemed to have enough going on.

And I painted over an abstract, that had started to become fish (but not very good fish). It was a watercolor, but now it's getting india ink on it (black - haven't used black in several years). Then it got a row of cats on the bottom, and then, lo, more fish appeared. Koi this time. Then I added more. Then I added much smaller goldfish (I love them and their bright colors) then some moors (with their goggle eyes), then things started getting out of hand in a nice way, with jokes and echos of cat and fish showing up on the wrong sides of the species aisle... Congress of Cats and Koi - I think that's what this one will end up. I'll post it when it's done.