EUREKA!!! 4:50pm update: mikela walked over to have a look at the painting and suggested making it a vertical. so i did, and it was like a jolt of electricity went through my body! HOW did i not see this? the whole space of the painting suddenly jumped into focus! OMG! i think we'll hang it at the top of our stairs, where it will be very dramatic.
4pm update: this is how parade 34 looks at the end of my work day. i had imagined the low light due to an overcast, rainy day, would be a problem. actually, it was a very sweet, soft light, that actually supported my work in an unexpected way. i worked almost exclusively on the left segment, which you can see in the detail on row 2, in a way, i think this portion works just as well by itself, and is giving me ideas for future paintings.
2:30pm update: below-the current state of parade 24.
11am update: below-this is how the studio looked when i walked in this morning
the studio as it looked upon re-entering this morning, and before resuming work on parade 34
TODAY'S Palette
the oil colors that i squeeze onto my palette vary from day to day. the colors i had been using prior to leaving on our trip had dried out, so i had to squeeze new ones out from their tubes.
here's what today's palette looks like. note the predominance and variety of grey, beige and flesh colors. my favorites.
below: THEN & NOW
ABOVE LEFT: 1/23/05 creek painting in gouache on archival paper ABOVE RIGHT: 6/9/14 north crestone creek, 16x16" oil on portrait linen. these two images show better than words might the evolution of my plein air paintings over a ten year period.
8am update: i'm making mikela's second cup: today's bean is kenya nyeri kigwandi AB, home roasted to city+. the raw beans, as always, are from sweetmarias.com. description of this bean's taste: "juicy sweet orange, grapefruit, plum and grape. citric brightness of ruby red grapefruit. bodied, bright and fruited sweetness."
in an hour or so, i'll walk the 500 feet over to my studio to resume work on parade 34. it's an overcast, rainy day, with snow above 11,000 ft, so we'll see if there's enough natural light to paint.
YANNIS TSAROUCHIS ON GALLERIES (tsarouchis, 1910-1989 was my teacher, mentor and friend)
yannis tsarouchis in 1970. photo by henri cartier bresson
an entire large book would not be enough for someone to list and evaluate the pros and cons of galleries. there’s something off here. i’m not someone who sits in judgement of merchants as exploiters, nor do i find myself in conflict with them; conflicts which are often reminiscent of a neurotic son and his uptight, mean father. these are minor issues, even though they might make the artist suffer, both psychologically and materially. the dangers posed by galleries lie elsewhere. in buying and selling an artist’s work, a gallery owner may influence the artist depending on his success or lack thereof in selling the work. in order for art to have a good effect on people, it's important for the artist to feel the freedom to explore and be bold; something which galleries don’t encourage. as long as there are artists who desire fame and ever increasing prices, merchants will flourish. for the artist to become a merchant is even worse. without doubt, when i hear of exploitation and unjust behavior, my tendency is to deeply study the degrees to which both the exploited and the exploiter are responsible. for an injustice to take place, there must be someone who agrees to submit to it.
tarlow & tsarouchis in paris, ca. 1971-3
yannis tsarouchis, published 1990 by the yannis tsarouchis foundation,
translation : philip tarlow