2021 watercolor 16 after end of day revision
2021 watercolor/collage 16 before this afternoon’s revision
4:22 PM: at the very end of the day i decided to revise 2021 watercolor/collage 16 as well, simplifying it quite a bit and thereby creating a lot more open space for the eye.
it bears little resemblance to the previous version, which you see here. all the scrawls and scribbles are gone, the image has been flipped upside down, and there are numerous creek references, absent in the previous version. that’s one of the blessings of using collage, which allows immediate gratification of the need to make radical changes to a piece.
the houston gallery representing my work for over 20 years asked me to elaborate a bit on something i had said to him when they were asked about my use of figures by a client interested in a couple of my ano kato series paintings. i put together a very brief 2 pager:
2021 watercolor/collage 15 at 3 pm
3 pm: i worked more on 2021 watercolor/collage 15. earlier, i collaged a fair amount of white paper because it seemed too crowded. now i went back in and added a passage on the upper right, which makes more sense compositionally.
2021 watercolor/collage 15 11 x 14 3/4” following this morning’s revisions
12:43 PM: i had thought earlier today that i was going to start work on the tall skinny painting in oil on linen that mikela commissioned me to make for our west facing living room wall. but when i took another look at 2021 watercolor/collage 15, which i had worked on a few days ago, i found there was too much going on. so i flipped it 180°, collaged over about 3/4 of it with white paper, and then worked into that, playing off what remained of the original piece. the cactus blossom has become the dominant theme, and as i glance over at it now, what i did seems to have given this painting greater coherence.
BELOW: a comparative before & after
7:55 AM: we returned from denver/boulder yesterday evening following our dental cleanings, my knee shots, an acura service & food shopping. it’s a long day, with a 4 hour drive each way, which we’ll be repeating on friday.
in looking back over some 2017 photos of my gaze series, i came across this grouping, showing the evolution of one of the pieces in the series.
more when i get back to work in the studio…