Old paint on canvas, as it ages, sometimes becomes transparent. When that happens it is possible, in some pictures, to see the original lines: a tree will show through a woman’s dress, a child makes way for a dog, a large boat is no longer on an open sea. That is called pentimento because the painter “repented”, changed his mind. Perhaps it would be as well to say that the old conception, replaced by a later choice, is a way of seeing and then seeing again….. The paint has aged now and I want to see what was there for me once, and what is there for me now.
-Lillian Hellman
Pentimento: A Book of Portraits
I love this quote Dale. I think of my own experience when I relate to this quote. What we think at one point in time is better understood with age...I become wiser or am I seeing things from another perspective?
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