3:22 PM: I started my day following a great sleep and one of my deeper meditations earlier this morning. we’ve been watching some of the 2020 tokyo olympics in the evenings, and we especially liked the skateboarders and the relay races, both men & women. I photographed a few moments of these competitions by pausing the playback of the games we had recorded. of course I preferred the aerial views. I found 2 stretched portrait linen 16x20” canvases and decided to make a 40” wide composition, placing the two of them side by side. so this is stage 1:
as I was starting this project, I glanced over at 8/2/2021 creek oil and saw something I wanted to modify around the head of the figure on the right, with the blue bathing suit. so I made that modification; adding blue, not liking it and then taking it out with solvent on a paper towel. that removed most of the grey textured look around the head of this figure and revealed the almost white canvas beneath, which ends up unintentionally making this paddler the focus of the painting. well, maybe it needed a focus & I subconsciously knew that! here’s the modified painting, BELOW>
8/2/2021 creek oil following todays modifications
and lastly, as occurred yesterday, while working/playing on other stuff, I cast glances at 8/7/2021 creek oil, the 20x20” painting that was cropped from a larger, unsuccessful one a few weeks ago. it then had a different name, but since I really started radically transforming it yesterday, i’m just calling it by yesterday’s date. confusing, I know. what I did today consisted of collaging 3 different elements, enlivening the composition with the yellows in 2 of the collaged pieces; fragments of a brochure from aspen I had in my stack of papers. following these modifications, I decided I like it better this way, with the black bit on the bottom, contrary to what I said earlier. the blue suggests sky, while the blacks suggest a landscape.
so here’s the current state of the painting/collage, BELOW:
8/7/2021 creek oil/collage following todays modifications
10:13 AM: I think I like it better this way:
8:7:2021 creek oil 20x20in.
than this way:
10:18 AM: about to get to work now….more in a little while