1:25pm update: below is the latest version as of 1:25 pm. gotta go to our meetings now; more tomorrow morning.
detail of best left unsaid 9 in it's current state, 12:33 pm
this is a very delicate painting, and a difficult one NOT to do in one shot, mainly because it's a perfect candidate for painting "wet into wet." when the oil paint is still wet. in other words, you can paint into the still moist colors, as did all the great masters of oil: hals, velasquez, goya, etc. and blend colors in a way that is particular to oil painting: a very juicy, sexual experience.
but our schedule is such that i have to do it in stages, sometimes skipping a day, as i did yesterday. this afternoon we have a couple of unavoidable appointments, so i'll have to pick it up again tomorrow.
i'm finding working on this one particularly intriguing....or maybe compelling is the right word. the figures reflected in the large sheets of glass at moma are shadows of shadows, sometimes 3X removed. they confirm just how much our mind fills in something barely suggested, based on our store of past images. it makes me wonder if the evoked memories are just in the past, or maybe in the future? now i'm sounding like a true crestonian! the exit sign at the top can be seen as a metaphor. the bodies, joined by the smoky light of reflections, merge, unknowingly connected to one another.
back to work before we have to leave in an hour.
it's good to remember, in all this talk about "content," richter's statement, which i've mentioned more than once in past posts:
Theory has nothing to do with a work of art. Pictures which are interpretable, and which contain a meaning, are bad pictures. A picture presents itself as the Unmanageable, the Illogical, the Meaningless. It demonstrates the endless multiplicity of aspects; it takes away our certainty, because it deprives a thing of its meaning and its name. It shows us the thing in all the manifold significance and infinite variety that preclude the emergence of any single meaning and view. gerhard richter, 1964-5 (bold emphasis is mine)