8:33 am: my cold symptoms are slightly better, but i still don't have the energy to go to my studio and start working. these are especially gorgeous days, and i hate missing the opportunity to venture out to the creek to paint the last plein air of the season, but i don't think it would be wise.
yesterdays site re-org was interesting. i still have a ways to go, so i may continue working on it today. while scrolling through thousands of iphone photos, i found this blurry early stage image of one of my gaze paintings. it sort of made me sad, because i can see now that my urge to leave some of those paintings in this becoming state was right on.
it reminds me of this rembrandt etching i saw in the philadelphia museum of art last week.
i sent this image to my dear friend and renowned rembrandt scholar gary schwartz in the netherlands, and he referred me to one of his numerous books on rembrandt, which you see below.
in short, he calls rembrandt a master of selective finish. giving it a name, and especially with gary's credentials, allows us to more fully appreciate rembrandt as the timeless artist he is, unexpectedly bringing him into the circle of the contemporary. makes me wonder whether picasso knew of rembrandt's selective finish works.
getting back to the unfinished gaze series image i came across yesterday, it stirs a longing in my to return to this series and experiment with selective finish, for which i have always had a passion. later today, if i can find it, i'll post a painting i made for my 2006 solo show in athens. the urge to leave it "unfinished" was so strong, that i listened. on opening night, it was the very first painting to sell!