today i started a re-work of one of the grey series paintings i considered a failure. it was titled grey2/the guitar player; it's the lower photo. the composition just didn't work. i played around with it for quite a few days, i thought maybe i had resolved it & brought it to the house, but it didn't hold up compared with the rest of the series. i might have pulled it out, but the figure just didn't excite me.
so i went over with it with a wash of warm grey, and then launched in without knowing which vermeer i would draw from. it was the lacemaker, of which there are already 2 versions. i fooled around, made a preliminary drawing with a diluted grey acrylic color. didn't like it & flipped the canvas on it's head & started over. the second time, the drawing worked. i liked what was happening. i took it as far as i could today. it has a presence, so we'll see where it goes. we're traveling to edwards wednesday, so tomorrow might be a short day in the studio. i love coming home to a painting in progress, but there are times when you lose the thread & can't get back into the energy.