1:29pm update: well, i was able to start working, but now the dark clouds have rolled in, the thunder is echoing and the storm is moving rapidly from west to east across the valley. it will arrive in moments.
so, as you can see in the images below, parade 37 is at an early stage of development. as i wrote yesterday, i had to keep reminding myself "ceci n'est pas une pipe!" which is the title of the well known magritte painting of a pipe. especially while i was painting the pearls around her neck. yes, of course they should look like pearls. but they are NOT pearls. they are playful flicks of my brush on the delicious artfix portrait linen, which takes the oil paint in an indescribably satisfying way.
i intentionally flipped open one of my matisse books before launching into this one, to remind myself of his oriental swooping curves, mastery of color and that X factor all his own.
so now i'll wait out the storm while doing other stuff, and if the darkness persists i'll continue work on this painting tomorrow.
11:03 am update: i'm getting started later than i anticipated due to some unexpected logistics i had to handle, but in the mean time, i thought i'd post a shot i took while walking to the studio of these first buds on the cactus, which usually are in full bloom early next month and last for only a week or 10 days. they don't bloom again for an entire year!
7am update: we moved parade 26, 12x60" to a wall in our entryway that works better than where it had been in our east living room. it was painted as a horizontal, but ended up as a vertical. it works both ways, but i slightly prefer vertical. have a look at the images BELOW and see what you think.
i'm attempting to get to my studio early this morning so i can start parade 37 as well as working on 3 projects i need to put some attention on. i'll put images of stage 1 of parade 37 as soon as they become available. in yesterday's post i spoke of weather conditions making it too dark for painting. today we haven't yet seen sunshine, but it's brighter and i shouldn't have a problem. we got .78" of rain yesterday, which fell as snow above 11,000 ft., giving us a very good start to what is normally one of our wettest months.
