gaze 14, 32x32", at 2 pm today
2:34 PM: this afternoon i finally got back to my easel. i did more work on gaze 14, and i think it's definitely an improvement. my inspiration for her now teeters somewhere between rubens and fayum. her gaze however is indisputably coming from my years of viewing fayum portraits, going back to the late '60's and early '70's, when i made studies of fayum portraits on site, in the louvre and the british museum. while the rubens portrait i drew from reflects his sexual attraction to his new 16 year old bride, gaze 14 brings to mind the poignant, timeless gaze of many of the 1st c. fayum portraits. in terms of pure painterly qualities, i feel the paintings in this series are ever more accomplished in that realm, always pushing the boundaries of what is technically possible with the unforgiving acrylic medium.