4/29/21 creek oil as it looked moments ago
6:50 PM: mikela & i went over and looked at it. it’s much stronger in person. much stronger. we both felt it was complete, so when it dries, i’ll bring it to the house & hang it in the living room for the final evaluation. i wish you could see the actual painting!
2:28 PM: i did quite a bit more since my 11:58 am post, including collaging a drawing my grandson philip made in february, 2018, of a window, with his signature on the back faintly bleeding through. either it’s completely out of place, or, as i suspect, it makes the whole composition click. on the left of the window is a section of a map of paris. the log that tranverses the entire composition is what you might call a device. i’m not fond of devices, except when, as i believe is the case here, they are essential to the whole, and not what i would call a gimmick. the truth is, if you could accompany me to our local creek, you’d observe many such logs, which have fallen in a strong wind or been swept down the creek by strong spring melt-off currents. the map of paris not only hides some green leaves, of which there were too many, but introduces another, different patterning in addition to the wavy ripples and the white dots referring to the bubbling water.
there’s plenty of opportunity here for your fantasy to spin out; from landscape elements to animal forms and yes, sexual innuendo.
DETAIL of the paris map & philip’s window. if you look carefully you’ll see his signature in red bleeding through.
11:58 AM: this morning i resumed work on 4/29/21 creek oil, which is painted over one of my less interesting sound of a flute series oils, 26x78”
i added a few collaged pieces, including a map of our area. the painting is still pondering who the hell it is; sound familiar? it know it’s not a realist painting of a creek. it knows it’s not a pure abstraction. i’ll keep working and see what happens between now and 3pm, when i usually run out of juice. but then, as you all know, i’m likely to do something significant just before walking out the door. more later…
by the awy, in the foreground of the above photograph is beyond the easel,” a book about the adventures of the nabis in making large, decorative paintings, thumbing their noses at the more traditionalist painters of that era.