5:11 PM: so it didn't take long to make my decision. i brought gaze 2 back to the house, hung it on our east living room wall, and it became immediately clear that this painting needs work. i might even shift images. in the company of it's brothers and sisters, like the one you see on the floor, it's way out of character. too specific. beautifully painted passages? yes, for sure. but it's simply not representative of what the series is about. too specific. too much of vermeer with his back to us and too little mystery. have a good look, because by noon tomorrow, what you see will be gone; scrumbled out of existence! i did have a fun time painting it though, and learned a lot more about vermeer's technique and his spirit.

3:43 PM: i knocked myself out today. i made some changes to gaze 2 that may or may not have improved the painting. i'm just too tired to evaluate, so it will have to wait till tomorrow morning.

the figure seemed too realistic, in the sense that i felt there was a split between the free biomorphic shapes surrounding the figure and the figure itself. i collaged over part of it; his waist with the sash, but that didn't work, so i painted into it, and now i'm afraid it's lost some of it's freshness, lightness and grace.

below is the current state on the right, next to gaze 2 as it looked when i entered my studio this morning. it might need a light scrumble in the morning. scrumble, fro those of you who don't follow my blog regularly, is a light wash of color which is scraped before it dries, then painted and or collaged into.