3:11 PM: mikela & i work every day and today is no exception. so i revised watercolor/collage 135 & 137, and started watercolor/collage 149.
137 has an interesting history. i had cut it in two, thinking i was saving the most inetresting part. but mikela and i both agreed that the original was better, so i rejoined them and that was that. or so i thought! with my recent passion for introducing figures into previous watercolor/collages, it was the turn of 137 today.
it’s as though this boy with the green patterned hat was always there! i’m very pleased with the result, and feel it enriches the composition tremendously. not only that; the whole reason for going back into these older pieces is to add the human dimension to what previously would have seemed to many as an abstraction.
watercolor/collage 135 is the one i’ve been revising since yesterday, when i first introduced the figure in the lower right. today i introduced a new element, collaged to the lower right of the figure. it’s a little like the punctuation mark that was needed in the composition. it kind of reads as a path the figure is about to take. but it’s enigmatic, since this guy seems to be standing in the creek. i love enigmas.
and finally, i started a new one: watercolor/collage 149. right now, it’s very spare, with lots of white space, and the figure of a boy reaching for something . the coloring in this figure on the lower right is mostly crayon, unlike the previous figures i’ve introduced, which were painted in gouache. and, whereas the tree trunks in previous iterations are in gouache, this one, thus far at least, is drawn using a wooden pen and chinese ink. i love how spare and essential it is, in every aspect. we’ll see how long that lasts!
our thanksgiving dinner will consist of mikela’s delicious squash soup & salad, so i’m headed back to the house to prepare for that. happy thanksgiving everyone!