walking woman, 25x25” oil on portrait linen
2:29 PM: i started a new painting on a 25x25” portrait llinen canvas i stretched yesterday.i began integrating the walking woman seen from behind into a creekscape, but this wasn’t working so i painted over it and introduce a figure in the tub, and that’s where she is for now.
11:28 AM: after studying it for a few days, i felt that girlfriends needed collaging as a path towards greater intimacy and becoming more compositionally interesting. i feel i achieved that vision, and will move on to starting a new 25x25” composition on a canvas i stretched yesterday.
BELOW: six stages of girlfriends.
drawn at a meeting on february 6, 2026
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
the sangres, 1999, 24x18.5” , gouache on paper
the sanghres 2, 8x24” 2000, gouache on paper
this gouache on paper was painted in 1999. i drove to the place with the best view and made the painting in my car so that it would have the freshness and immediacy i wanted.
girlfriends, 25x25” oil on portrait linen
12:51 PM: i did further work on the new grlfriends today, especially the upper right portion of the composition and the grey floor, as well as a bit of refinement of the two figures.
girlfriends on 2/11/26
girlfriends, 25x25” colored pencil & oil on stretched portrait linen
11:34 AM: i continued work on girlfriends this morning, adding colors to the girl on the right. i was in my groove, and stopped working once it evaporated. knowing when you’re in the zone is as important as recognizing when you leave.
i’m painting standing up, with the canvas flat on my painting table. for the umpteenth time, i’ll say just how superb this xtra fine portrait linen is, and how it allows the painting to paint itself.
girlfriends, 25x25” colored pencil and oil on extra fine portrait linen, as she looked at the end of day one.
5:48 PM: i’m starting a series of six paintings, all 25x25” on portrait linen. it’s the last of my 84” long roll of extra fine portrait linen. i should be getting a new roll delivered later this week.
unlike the recent paintings i’ve been doing, this one, for now at least contains only two figures, both viewed from above, both women sitting side by side on a wooden bench, one looking at her phone, the other with her phone to her ear.. i completed the drawing and began introducing flesh tones; i’ll take it further tomorrow.
Grand Central, 36x36” lithograph in an edition of 125
1:09 PM: i made this 36x36” lithograph in 1984, during the period when i was living in manhattan and showing at fischbach gallery on 57th street. it’s an edition of 125, some of which are in private collections and the reta are here in my studio. i made the studies for the piece on site and would take the opportunity to visit my dad in his office, just off 5th avenue. at the time i was living and painting in a 10th floor appartment on central park west.
it’s sitting atop my desk here in the studio, covered in plastic, which is why you see the reflection in the corner.
1/6/26 oil/collage, 26×26” oi & collage on linen
3:07 PM: i contniued work on 1/6/26 oil/collage, adding some figures on the left side of the composition.
