11:17 AM: i once again whited over studio play for a change, and began a totally new flower composition. i might stop here for the day, since i used my morning energy to create a fresh image, and pick it back up tomorrow.
the trick is to keep it fresh and not get caught up in details irrelevant to the energy of the composition as a whole. best to do that first thing.
studio play, 25x25” oil on portrait linen
1:40 PM: i did more work on studio play today, adding to the composition on the right with leaves, checkerboard patterning and green dots.
studio play, 25x25” oil on linen as she looked moments ago
studio play, 25x25” oil on portrait linen, as she looked at the end of my painting day today.
today i continued work on the 25x25” canvas i started on the 14th, titled studio play. as i’ve said before, i just love painting on this portrait linen. it’s a surface that makes me want to say that the painting is painting itself!
we’ll see where she goes tomorrow.
1:59 PM: although mikela liked it a lot, i was not satisfied with this collage in the state i left it yesterday afternoon. although i loved the two dancing figures, who have appeared in previous works, as a whole, i felt there was too much going on; too many things fighting for your attention. what do you look at… the goldfish; the blue architectural element on the right; the fragment of a reproduction of a taiga drawing in the center; or the naked legs beneath the goldfish? too much, man!
after making mikela’s coffee, i went through an old, spiral bound sketchbook laying on top of one of my tables. i proceded to tear out the page with a drawing of a potted plant and, using my mat knife, cut away the areas between the leaves. then i lay the ink drawing on top of 6/13/26 collage after flipping it so that it became a vertical. i applied glue to the back of the drawing and pressed it onto the collage. the result was, i found, far more interesting. you can still make out part of the body of the female dancing figure, with her hairy armpit and red hair, as well as the face and raised arm of the male dancing figure, now to her right.
the top of the potted plant drawing was just short of the upper end of the composition, so i supplemented it with a piece of paper from the same sketchbook so that it would have the same off-white tone, and then drew the remainder of the leaf with my fountain pen.
so there you have it! lets see how she holds up to our scrutiny this evening and take it from there tomorrow.
BELOW: yesterdays version on the left
6/13/26 collage, 17x11” collage, colored pencil & pastel on bristol paper as she looked at the end of my painting day
6/13/26 collage, 11x17” as she looked at 1pm today
1:24 PM: modifications to yesterdays version.
BELOW: an earlier version of todays modifications is on the left
studio play, 25x25” 6/14/26, the initial drawing in pencil on portrait linen
4:41 PM: i made a drawing for a new painting title studio play on a 25x25” stretched portrait linen canvas today.
6/13/26 collage, 11x17” collage & colored pencil on bristol
1:42 PM: i continued work on 6/13/26 collage this afternoon, following my weekly zoom with my buddy in kiev.
6/13/26 collage, 11x17” on bristol as she looked at the end of my painting day today.
3:21 PM: this new one, 11x17” has gone through numerous stages today and i don’t know right now whether it’s there yet. we’ll see in the morning, on what is predicted to be a stormy day.
6/10/26 oil, 10 3/4x20” as she looked following my rubbing out of what i did this morning.
2:22 PM: when we saw what i had done to this painting, we both felt it had been way better, way more interesting as a painting in the previous version. the oil paint was still fresh enough that i was able to rub out what i did today and now we’ll see where she wants to go tomorrow morning.
i have my mens group meeting at 8, back around 9:30, so i’ll pick up then. she did however lose some of the elements that hadn’t yet dried, so i’ll address that tomorrow.
BELOW: in yesterdays version, on the LEFT, you can see what got rubbed out that i’ll be restoring
6/10/26 oil, 10 3/4x20” as she looked following this mornings burst of energy
9:17 AM: we were going to go for our morning walk and i hadn’t yet meditated. it’s very buggy, so we would have had to stop at the house and get our netting to put over our heads. mikela was deep into a project she has to complete and get out today, so i figured, what the f…k, i may as well do a bit more to yesterdays 10 3/4x20” oil. and of course it transformed radically. goldfish have once again entered the picture, borrowed unashamedly from matisse, and now this is looking like my recent series of 25x25” paintings, but with a light blue instead of the darker blue i had been using. in addition, yesterday’s version contained 3 figures. one has remained visible; his head is just above and to the right of the fish bowl.
so now maybe i’ll take my meditation break and see how i feel about what i did once i emerge.
2:12 PM: the right portion of the composition i made at noon wasn’t working, so i took it out painted over it with white oils, made a light sketch in colored penciland am waiting till tomorrow morning for it to dry so i can work into it. my early morning energy is always best, so lets see what happens tomorrow.
6/10/26 oil, 10 3/4x20” mixed media on portrait linen as she looked after taking out the right portion of the composition
12:03 PM: i got into my groove about an hour ago and made a new painting on a stretched 10 3/4x20 portrait linen i worked rapidly and with certainty, using oil, colored pencils, crayons and oil pastels. continuing my journey into abstracted realism.
6/10/26 oil, 10 3/4x20” mixed media on portrait linen
