3:04 PM: so i got back to work on gaze 34, which i was revising when we left for edwards last week.
BELOW: gaze 34. ;eft to right: on Nov. 1st,2016, Jan. 2 and a few minutes ago.
i had been critical of the grey area surrounding the face in the nov. 1st iteration. so i brought it back to the studio. the day before leaving for edwards, i brought it to the state you see above, middle. while i like what happened with the areas on either side of her face, i wasn't happy with the face itself. today, her face re-gained it's richness and fullness. at the same time, it integrated with the background in a way that allows the eye to freely wander over the painterly surface. areas of background can be appreciated in and of themselves, as can be seen in the details below. the whole surface sings when compared with the nov. 1st version, where the grey surrounding her face creates a more traditional separation between background and foreground.
deKooning influence: somewhere in my visual memory, deKooning looms large, especially his woman series. below right, a deKooning detail.
10:28 am: after returning from our latest edwards trip, i began having a strong feeling that something new is brewing. i've been feeling the urge to paint in oils again. i miss it. the sfumato; the juiciness; the subtleties it makes possible....
so.
studio interior this morning, with 2 of the incomplete gaze series on the wall.
j have a few unfinished gaze paintings to complete. as you know they are in acrylic & collage on cotton canvas. once that's complete, i anticipate stretching a few 32x32" pieces of primed linen i have and taking the plunge. i'm trying not to get ahead of myself, and thus remaining, as far as possible, neutral and unattached to what exactly the new work will look like.