2021 creek oil 1 26x78” at 11:30am today following the addition of strong blues
11:48 AM: it was a relief to get to my studio this morning and leave the d.c. drama behind for a few hours.
when i cast my all important first glance, what i saw seemed blah. no focus for the eye. so navigation signs. and a homogeneous overall tone that would be more appropriate for a rug than a painting.
i squeezed two blues onto a fresh palette and got busy, referring to a different creek photo than the one i’ve been using so far. the titanium/zinc white i applied with my palette knife yesterday prooved to be a great jumping off point. and the pinks that entered the picture on january 4th, when it was a horizontal composition and were then softened on january 6, when it became vertical, were perfect foils for the strong blues i painted in today. allowing spaces for the leaves in the background provided an opportunity for patterning. patterns that have meaning are so much more powerful than patterns made purely for the sake of patterns. and the grey mottled rock i had worked on january 7th proved to be one more valuable contribution to the assortment of patterns i introduced today, along with the grouping of loosely painted rocks, some faint, others more clearly apparent in the center of the composition.
12/19/20 creek oil after working into it with oil pastels
2:39 PM: as i prepared to stretch a new 26x66” linen canvas, my eye caught 12/19/20 creek oil. it seemed dull and monotone and didn’t carry well at a distance, so i made a few additions using oil pastels, and now i’m continuing the process of stretching the new canvas.