3:45 PM: i can already see more work needs to be done on the hands tomorrow.
1:30 PM: more work has been done on grey 12, especially the red ribbon & the fingers of her left hand. it's looking pretty ersolved right now. as always, my first glace tomorrow will tell the story. if you are wondering about the bit of blue on her nose, remember, this is first and foremost a painting, and it's a lot about how the eye moves over the surface and, in this specific case the concept of wabi sabi. richard powell said: wabi-sabi nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect."
12:17 PM: here are my changes to grey 12 thus far. yesterday's version, left below, today's at noon, right. major changes have taken place in the hands, the string of pearls and her hairline. the white shape on her cheek originally served a compositional purpose, but increasingly read like a hole in her cheek. the pearl necklace was re-positioned as well. a scrumble is tempting, but i do like the clarity of this painting, and feel no need to cloud it. often a scrumble is for the purpose of masking the relative harshness, compared with oil, of acrylic paint. but i use it (scrumble is a word i made up to describe going over the image with a light wash, then going back in while it's still wet & scraping the surface.) only when the painting seems to in-your-face bright and sharp.
it's interesting to think about how our experience of looking at a painting has evolved. in terms of this painting, think about how you might look at it if, for example, picasso and graffiti had never happened.
8:23 AM: as i lie here doing my wrap, (castor oil on a special pad overlayed with a heating pad), a natural healing solution for a gall bladder attack, i've just read an article, written in greek in the athens magazine. it was written by a young greek immigrant, who left the country 3 years ago, when he was hopeless about ever finding work in greece. he went to england, where he was able to find work, at first doing a menial job changing the diapers of elderly patients and graduating to more interesting, albeit low paying work in his field of psychology, while continuing to work on his novels, which is his passion. I wrote a comment, acknowledging him for his beautifully written article. but it made me sad. very sad. i completely understand his reasons for not returning to greece.
now that i'm almost done with my wrap, i'll be preparing for my day in the studio, where i plan on doing more more work on grey 12, which i may complete today, and starting a new painting. grey 12 is somewhat of a departure from the paintings in the rest of the series, and i can't wait to see how that direction develops.
i'll continue to blog and post photos of my process once i get to the studio. it's a gorgeous clear day, and we may take another trail walk this afternoon. below, 3 pics from yesterday's trail walk. it was totally blissful.
