4:19pm update: it became really dark around 1:15pm, just after my last post. so i stopped working on parade 37 and instead worked on organizing my 12 or more external drives. as i worked on that project, i cast glances at parade 37. the upper third, which i had worked on this morning, didn't feel right. it seemed more and more to me that it was actually taking away from the lower portion of the painting. about 15 minutes ago, i wiped it out completely, including the underlying drawing in red pencil. you can see the result in the image to the right. the part i wiped out seems in retrospect to be a whole different painting. i'll see how i feel tomorrow morning, but right now it feels like a huge relief for all that stuff to be out of the picture.
BELOW: parade 37 at 1:15pm
1:12pm update: i may have to interrupt my work as the skies grow darker and yet another wave of rain and thunder approach from the south. here is the current state of parade 37. i worked on the upper third of the painting. while having lunch, i glanced at john elderfield's comments in henri matisse: a retrospective, published in 1992 on the occasion of the matisse retrospective at MOMA. they concern his relationship to oriental art and how it helped him develop a "true plastic space."
10:44am update: checking out yesterday's additions to parade 37. i'm just getting back to work now.
in yesterday's post i expressed my gratitude to alex katz for paving the way to the particular genre of realist simplification/abstraction that interests me right now. below are 3 characteristic works by katz.