2:55 PM: stopping for the day; suddenly felt that wave of physical tiredness that starts around your eyes and radiates out to your entire body. not complaining you know; i did a lot today. this is a departure in many ways from the grey series to date, which were all inspired by vermeer. i have to gaze at it for a while; maybe i'll bring it to the house, hang it, then bring it back tomorrow to work more on it, if it feels like it needs more.
when i painted his hand, i was suddenly reminded of the greek painter diamandopoulos. he is greatly under appreciated. at the time, in the '60's, many felt that tsarouchis had borrowed heavily from him, but i think it was simply a case of simultaneity. at any rate, he was a beautiful painter. gotta clean up & get back to the house. the wind is gusting to gale force, and if i want to bring this painting back i'll have to drive it, so we don't both get blown away!
1:25 PM: a system is moving into the stae, so right now & few the next few days, we've got high winds & uncharacteristically cloudy skies. it's kinda dark, but that hasn't stopped me from working. i've always been a huge admirer of terborch, who's paintings i've studies carefully in the met & elsewhere. i'll probably paint for another hour or two. we have a dinner guest tonight, so then i'll go help out with prep.
12:45 PM: beginning to sketch out the face.
11:45 am: i make the drawing, based upon terborch's "interior with 3 figures." the details of the cloting on this figure are good enough to eat! it's as if clothing, at least the stuff wealthy individuals of the time wore, was designed to drive us painters insane with painterly abandon! terborch, a contemporary of vermeer, is my second most favorite 17th c. dutch genre painters. his way of drawing the figure has, in my mind, something in common with the great greek painter, el greco, or theotokopoulos, which was his real name. an elongation and slightly mannerist treatment of the figures one might almost imagine was the result of a slight anomaly in the artist's vision. on the LEFT: terborch's interior with three figures.
11 am: lots of collaging has taken place. a new image will be introduced after i get my oatmeal going. in case you hadn't noticed, there are many sexual references in the shapes i cut out and collage onto the canvas. my hand, with the mat knife, moves more fluidly when i'm cutting out a breast or penis shape than a generic biomorphic shape.
10:23 AM: as promised at the end of the day yesterday, grey 16 is undergoing major changes today, starting with a healthy morning scrumble!