picasso ca. 1964, at 83, with a maquette for "le dejeuner sur l'herbe" in mougins
QUOTE OF THE DAY: "what does it mean for a painter to paint in the manner of so-and-so or to actually imitate someone else? what's wrong with that? on the contrary, it's a good idea. you should constantly try to paint like someone else. but the thing is, you can't! you would like to. you try. but it turns out to be a botch...and it's at that very moment you make a botch of it that you're yourself." picasso
12:49PM UPDATE: after making the adjustments & tweaks i spoke of yesterday, below is the completed, signed parade 22. if you compare it with yesterday's version, on row 2, you will see what a huge difference the final tweaks on a painting can make. now that the bottom half, which is a reflection in glass, was "pushed back" by waiting for it to dry enough overnight that i could lightly brush over it with a very diluted grey-ish, pinkish color, the painting has come to life. the eye travels over the surface smoothly, without getting stuck anywhere. of course that's a simplification of what really happened. if you compare the upper left quadrant, you'll begin to notice in the light & shadow on the floor, for example.
a few final highlights on the upper portion, to the sneakers for example, make it pop just enough.
now, after a mid-day omelet, i'll begin preparing fro the next in this series of larger parade paintings, which will be shown this coming fall at gremillion & co. fine art, houston.
is there anything better than loving what you do every day so much, you can't wait to get back to work the next morning? but it's counter-productive to do it EVERY day. so our little breaks, when we go for example to work with the kids at the middle school near vail for our actionlab360 project, create the perfect break, allowing us both to get some distance for what we each do every day, and come back with a fresh perspective & new insights.
STAGE 6 of parade 22, before today's session
as soon as i finish my morning meditation, i plan on completing parade 22, making the adjustments i spoke of in yesterday's post. then i'd like to move on to preparations for parade 23 & 24.
musician marvin etzioni
drawing in pencil of L.A. musician marvin etzioni, done in 2000 in delphi, greece
TODAY'S LOOK BACK:
in the year 2000, we were leading a seminar in delphi, greece. amongst the participants was marvin etzioni, a beautiful musician we knew from L.A. as soon as he set foot in the hotel, marvin went straight for the piano in the lobby and began playing. i opened my sketch book and drew him.