4:05 PM: so actually, both shoulders were bothering me. they were too dark, detracting from the delicacy of the whole. the collaged bit of dark red with black stripes still seems a bit much, but I think i’ll let it be for now and see how I feel about it in the morning.
interestingly, from a distance of about 20 feet, which is how far my desktop is from the east wall of my studio, where I have it tacked up, it reads as though I was looking at a japanese print. the combination of black & white swirls from the collaged bit of an ink drawing; the juxtaposition of that light blue on his right with the yellow/green around his waist and the white foamy bits in the blue of the water below create the distinct feel of a japanese print, don’t you think? there’s something right now that I love a lot about it.
3:41 PM: I continued work on watercolor/collage 13 this afternoon. the bits of orange & light blue collage bring the entire composition to another level.as i’m looking at it right now however, that dark siena on his shoulder is bothering me, so I think i’ll go do something about that!
2:41 PM: 2 bathers, piso yialia
this very narrow oil painting, 18 1/2 x 5 1/2” hangs on an equally narrow bit of wall in my studio. it was painted in 2007 and revised in 2010, following a trip to greece, where we visited my old friend, andros. piso yialia is a beach adjacent to the main beach of yialia, about 15 minutes drive from the capitol of chora. back in the late ‘60’s/early‘70’s, it was a kind of adventure getting there, which involved climbing over some steep rocks. and in those days it was always deserted. I photographed and made sketches of 2 bathers, which I turned into an oil painting once we returned to colorado. I revised it in 2010, taking out the background of sea and sky and replacing it with the dark grey color you now see.
1:51 PM: that collaged piece under his arm with the black & white stripes was too much, so I collaged over it with one of my cut up ink drawings, and now i’m going back to work on this one.
12:39 PM: I began adding watercolor, gouache & collage to watercolor/collage 13 this morning. i’m working on it very playfully, alternating between making my ginger/tumeric tea, talking to mikela on my earpiece as she drives to the school and composing this post.
it helps that I finally got a good nights sleep, probably because I used my night guard, which I had been afraid to use because of my recent gum implant surgery. I’ll have the stitches removed tomorrow and hopefully i’ll be pain free in another week or two.
ok, enough chatter; back to your watercolor/collage, philip!
