12/19/20 creek oil 32x32” at the end of my painting day today
1:19 PM: today i continued working on both 12/19/20 creek oil and watercolor/collage 166. while the oil is moving ahead in spurts, with brush-overs, scraping & calligraphic bursts, the watercolor is progressing slowly and with great care to maintain the open spaces which, in a watercolor, can never be recreated once they’re gone.
pink has replaced beige as the overall color in the oil, with calligraphic marks in blue being the dominant event in the composition, which has now moved away from any semblance of creek-ness. the memory remains however, with underlying creek references peeking through when you see the painting in person. the influence of 11th-16th c. chinese masters of the brush is evident here. my entire being resonates to the notion of painting as poetry & music. and our unique marks, refined down over time to gestures celebrating life, sound our particular note with the movement only living beings are capable of.
2:31PM: so here’s the current state of the watercolor, which is moving so slowly it’s going backwards. mikela has entered the picture with her watering can, and the purple shadows provide an architectural framework for the composition. the pink flowers, now that i’m looking at it, seem a bit isolated from the rest of the composition, so maybe i’ll try to rectify that right now before the light starts fading.
BELOW: watercolor/collage 166 at 2pm (left) and 3pm
BELOW: shot on our stupa walk yesterday afternoon