3:34 PM: in 1975 I was living and painting in greece, where I was married to marina karagatsi, daughter of the novelist m. karagatsis. my mother-in-law, niki karagatsi, was a very fine painter, and she and I would frequently go out together to paint plein air. sometimes i’d drive her to piraeus, which at the time was a rich source of subjects for paintings of everyday life, which we, and other members of the informal group called the athens school, were fond of painting. this one was painted near the port of piraeus. it’s characteristic of the work I was doing and exhibiting at that time. my gallery was called ORA, created by an extraordinary man of armenian descent: assadour bacharian. way ahead of his time, he created what he called an “artistic and cultural center,” where there were poetry readings, musical events, etc. he also had a large collection of art books available to read on site or take out. he was not just my gallery director; he was a dear friend, and would occasionally make really tasty Armenian dishes for us when we invited him over.
2:49 PM: so after adding the collaged pieces, BELOW, I completed cacti in bloom watercolor/collage and immediately launched into a new one. these are very good prep for the next series of oil/collages i’ll be starting soon. they are allowing me to play around with new ideas on a small scale. this new one is larger than the one I just completed: 11 1/4 x 30”. you can just make out the pencil drawing of the same cactus bloom I painted in the previous one, next to which is one of the acrobats from the tokyo olympics celebration and, inside down, two of the female basketball players.right next to them is a detail of a branch & a rock from the creek. they will all be dancing together, once I take this new one to the next stage tomorrow.
a cold front is moving in, and right now, at 3 pm, the temperature has dropped to 22F, with the wind gusting to 30mph, making it feel more like 16°F, and when we wake up tomorrow morning, it’s forecast to be 1°F.
the sky as it looked at 8am this morning
12/10/2021 watercolor/collage. stage 1
11:57 am: cacti in bloom watercolor on arches watercolor paper, 6x16” has now become a watercolor/collage. while I liked the empty spaces on either side of the blossoms, they were asking for something. so I gave it to them, collaging a few pieces of paper, including one of my cut-up reed pen studio drawings. I also added a few more strokes of watercolor. I think it worked. glancing at it from a distance of about 20 feet, it reads well.
BELOW: the before & after
