4pm update: i'm wrapping it up for the day & won't be back in the studio till friday. the space is beginning to gain dimension. i think this one will benefit from the white spaces i intend to leave. only with the very final tweaks will it come alive in the way i envision. a number of figures as well as a couple of pieces of ancient marble sculpture in the lower central quadrant will add movement, anchor and enliven the space, as well as providing accents of color. you can see the drawing for these figures when you click on the image and make it full-screen. my feeling whenever we're in the MET and i come upon this view is always one of pleasure and awe. awe at the intimacy of the space, despite it's vastness, which of course includes the view of central park through the enormous panes of glass. when the light is right, there is great poetry to be found in the figures moving about the the MET as if engaged in some dance orchestrated by an unseen presence.
BELOW: 4 stages of parade 36
my new business card
1:27pm update: the current state of parade 36, below. row 2, right: today's palette. row 3: my lunch break was spent reading about vermeer's use of perspective and how in some of his earlier paintings, he hadn't yet mastered portraying floor tiles with the correct perspective and screwed up a bit. always refreshing to hear how one of the great painters of all time screwed up! lunch by the way consisted of eggs with rembrandt gouda (costco), fresh tomato & avocado on 7 grain toast shmeared with orange marmalade. quite tasty! on the upper left of the plate of food: my new business card. i used the image of my working palette, which i like better than one of a painting.
BREATHING WHILE PAINTING: i've noticed that when i'm painting, especially on the passages where i need to pay careful attention, i tend to hold my breath. so i'm practicing noticing that and when i do, taking deep breaths in my "hara." amazing how much that helps.
10:30am- li gonglin:i am posting these images as food for thought until i can talk more about li gonglin and chinese song dynasty art. so, as i prepare my colors for today's work on parade 36, have a look at them and see if they strike a chord. by the way, i thought i'd check out prices for this out of print book on amazon, for anyone interested in purchasing, and was amazed to learn they vary between $250 and $450!!
the current state of parade 36, 48"x48" before resuming work today:
the image i'm working from is based on a photo i took from an upper floor in the metropolitan museum of art. the orange bits outside the window are from christo's 1995 central park installation, the gates.