2:03 PM: the lower left portion of jazz 15 was bothering us both. so, after gazing at it on my studio wall for a couple of months, i greyed over that area of the composition and, just moments ago, sketched in a bird; the same one who first appeared in u.s. open 2. it will likely be overcast tomorrow, so i won’t have great light, but nonetheless i plan on giving the bird his features: beak, feathers, claws and those wonderful spotted patterns he/she sports! here’s the painting as it looked before i greyed over it, and moments ago.
continued work on "u.s. open 3" /
3:50 PM: i got somewhat of a late start today because we took our trail walk a tad late. in studying u.s.open 2 & 3, i determined that, of the two, u.s. open 3 was the one that most needed more work. i did quite a bit, as you’ll see from the before & after shots BELOW.
i way prefer today’s version. first of all, the triangle in the upper left, was coming from my head & was not an essential or even relevant part of the composition. the bir’d head was squinched and the green surrounding it was distracting. the tennis player’s shadow didn’t read as a shadow, whereas now it does. lets see how i feel about it in the morning.
continued work on U.S. Open 2 & 3 /
u.s. open 2 following today’s work
u.s. open 3 as it looked following today’s session
1:45 PM: i painted all morning, working on the next stages of u.s. open 2 & 3, & hit my limitof energy a few minutes ago. so i’ll post what i did, run into town to pick up a newly baked loaf of sourdough bread, then drive back home & lie down with mikela, who just returned from a conference she attended a few minutes ago.
one new element that has entered both paintings is a vibrant pink. and in u.s. open 3, a tennis player viewed from above with his racket poised for a serve. both paintings still need work, but i’m taking it real slow, since each has a very delicate balance and each, i believe represents a big step forward in the work i’ve been doing over the past 6 months, sice we returned form our trip to greece.
day 4: U.S. Open 2 / starting U.S. Open 3 /
u.s. open 2 as it looked following today’s work on the tennis player’s shirt, which is now yellow
BELOW: the tennis player in u.s. open 2 before & after today’s work on her shirt color
3:10 PM: i wasn’t satisfied with the skin tone on the body of the female tennis player adjacent to the bird, so i gave her a yellow top, which ties in with and balnaces the other yellows in the composiiton. not yet sure what, if anything will happen with the unpainted areas. i felt at an impass and din’t want to proceed unless i really felt the energy. so i started work on a new one: u.s. open 3, which has the exact same dimensions.
thus far, all we see is the large birds head adjacent to the drawing of a dinner table, which has also appeared in a recent painting: shinkeizou, completed last month.
u.s. open 3 on day 1
shinkeizou, with the same dinner table we see as a drawing in the new u.s. open 3
day 3, “u.s. open 2” / trail walk drawing this morning /
3:44 PM: i’m moving slowly on u.s. open 2. here’s the current state compared with yesterday. yesterday’s version on the LEFT
DETAIL of u.s. open 2
next steps with “u.s. open 2” / my solo skoufa gallery show in 2010 /
u.s. open 2, 20x38” as it looked moments ago, following a morning’s work
1:12 PM: this morning i continued work on the painting i started yesterday: u.s. open 2, 20x38” in oil on triple primed french portrait linen. i ran out of steam moments ago, so i don’t want to continue working on it till i’m fresh, tomorrow morning, following our trail walk. thus far, i haven’t done my usual scraping; i’m too attached to the brush strokes i’ve made on this superb surface.
detail; click on image to make full page & reveal brushstrokes
6:43 AM: in 2010 i had a solo show at skoufa gallery in athens. with the exception of 3-4 paintings, it sold out.
parade: this was one of the paintings in the exhibition
6:54 AM: it’s a chilly morning here in crsetone/baca, with the temperature hovering around 43F, but forecast to go up to 80F! in a few hours, i’ll be in my studio, continuing work on the new u.s. open 2. stay tuned!
US OPEN 2 / trail walk drawings /
us open 2, 20x38” as it looked at the end of day 1
3:02 PM: i didn’t feel like continuing us open 1. instead, i felt like starting something new on a fresh, unpainted piece of 20x38” portrait linen i had cut from the roll a few weeks back. so by gosh i did! the drawing, as you can see, includes many different views of figures engaged in activities: tennis & skateboarding mainly, although my old friend, the plaid shirted good doctor is in there too, along with some flowers inspired by 18th c. japanese fabrics.
caressing the linen with fresh oil paints is a pure aesthetic and sensual delight. painting the dark bits of flesh in shadow adjacent to the areas lit by the sun is a huge turn on. only the french could create such a marvelous painting surface!
four recent trail walk drawings mounted on board this morning
12:15 PM: we took our trail walk this morning and i made a drawing i wasn’t satisfied with, so i collaged a piece of map, worked into it a bit and then decided to mount it on board with 3 others, which i then placed in a frame.
4 recent trail walk drawings framed this morning
this morning’s drawing with a collaged map fragment
starting "U.S. Open 1" /
u.s. open 1, 20x80” oil on portrait linen, at 4pm today
2:32 PM: i’ve had this 20x80” whited over canvas sitting for about a month. yesterday as we watched the u.s. open matches, i shot some stills of the players from the tv screen. this morning i printed out a few and began an experiment. we’ll see if it has legs or just gets painted over again.
adjustments to "skateboarder 3" /
3:43 PM: i was about to launch into something new today, but my gaze kept returning to skateboarder 3, and i had a persistant feeling something more was needed.
i mostly used collage to make the changes, which will become apparant if you compare the two images BELOW.
so i’ll wait till tomorrow morning to satrt something new. we took our trail walk this morning, and i made another study of the creek using my colored pencils and a small drawing book.
this morning’s creek drawing
hu 1 & jazz 13 reworks /
jazz 13 as it looked at the end of my painting day today
3:56 PM: this morning i stretched hu 1, and then discovered there’s more i wanted to do. i think my changes and additions, which were mostly around the borders, have enriched the composition.
jazz 13 seems to be an ongoing experiment in ways the entire jazz series could go to another level. if i had to use one word to characterize that, it might be fluidity. i’ve been working into, the making fluid, curviliniar movements with the palette knife, creating a subtle play of movement across the canvas as well as greater ambiguity in the human figures scattered throughout the composition.
hu 1 as it looked following todays changes