3:18 pm: parade 46 at the end of my painting day. the monsoonal clouds have rolled in, there are rumbles of thunder and, most important, it's quite dark, as you can see below. my learning curve increased over the last couple of paintings. it's still an adventure into uncharted waters, but i have much more of a sense of how to adjust the jib. i have no idea what that means. it's like i now know unequivocally that i love to paint hair, and have always loved looking at how rubens does it. especially in his smaller paintings, which were most likely done entirely by him with no help from his assistants. there's a particular beard in the met......i'll find the image & post it when i do.
2:15 pm:
updated image: current state of parade 45
12:55 pm: a taste treat: stonewall kitchen's tangerine marmalade with almond butter on a water cracker. sound treat: tuareg dune songs.
9:51 am:
HENRY GELDZAHLER ON THE PITFALLS OF ART HISTORY
"the human mind detests chaos. we impose order wherever we can, appropriate or not, merely to feel in control. the odd datum or insight that doesn't fit can be safely ignored or forgotten. neatness is all. nowhere have i found this need for tidiness more prevalent than in the visual arts. in the discipline of art history, movement follows movement, decade cedes to decade, all for "progress" in the neatest of all possible worlds. too often art history asks us to impose on art a rational, linear progression. monet was painting his water lily series-his crowning achievement-more than a decade after picasso and braque invented cubism. edouard vuillard and pierre bonnard painted some of the finest post-impressionist pictures well into the "modernist" twentieth century. the mistake we fall into much too easily is asking the wrong questions. typically, what's new instead of what's good?"
henry geldzahler in looking at pictures, hanuman books, 1990
here's the state of parade 46, 56"x20" as i begin work:
6:58 am: we took our half hour walk, half of which is uphill, at 5:35 this morning, to avoid the mosquitoes. they don't become fully active until the temperature rises above 50 F. i have my mosquito netting jacket on, so it doesn't matter, but mikela's won't be delivered till this afternoon. i'd like to get an earlier start than ever this morning, so that by the time it gets too warm in my studio and i start fading from having been up since 5, i've completed my day of painting. we'll likely have more storms this afternoon, as the monsoonal pattern is still in place.
10:57 update: maybe i'm wrong about the referendum vote on sunday. i hope so! see this latest post from the guardian:http://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2015/jul/02/greek-debt-crisis-athens-creditors-referendum-yes-no-live
(written at 6:58 am): in the wake of intense propaganda, leading under-informed greeks to wrongly believe a "no" vote means an exit from the euro, it's looking like the "yes" votes will win this sunday's referendum in greece. that means the end of the left wing syriza government. the germans will have gotten their way, the new, compliant greek government will sign the terrible agreement and depression era misery will continue in greece for the foreseeable future. but the greeks won't put up with this indefinitely. something's got to give. the photo above is of finance minister varoufakis giving an interview today on bloomberg t.v. copy & paste this link in your browser to watch: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-02/defiant-varoufakis-says-he-ll-quit-if-greeks-endorse-austerity
today's strap choice/my new online glasses
the strap was hand made by zeugma, a small watch strap company in turkey. the leather is extremely soft and supple and easy on the wrist. the tan color of the stitching matches the color of the hands and numbers on the black dial. the glasses are my first purchased from zenni, online, thanks to the recommendation of our friend lilly.