girlfriends, 25x25” oil on portrait linen, as she looked at the end of my painting day today.
2:35 PM: the more i looked at girlfriends, the more i felt it was too starkly descriptive in a way that doesn’t reflect my sensibilities. that bench they are sititng on; their clothing and shoes; their hair…it was like the viewer was trapped in a construction he/she couldn’t escape from. increasingly, it just wasn’t working for me.
i worked on transforming it all day today, introducing two new figures, and arrived at a new version i feel good about. but there’s no way i could have arrived at this point without first diving in, risking fucking it all up, and following my gut.
BELOW: before and after the modifications i made today
