6/10/2021 creek oil as a horizontal at 5pm, 7/26/2021 26x78in.
5:11 PM: at the end of the day, i hung 6/10/2021 creek oil horizontally on my east studio wall and asked mikela to walk over & give her opinion. as soon as she saw it,she became ecstatic and had certaintly that was the ideal way to view it, although it works as a vertical as well. so now, it may finally resolved; i’ll see how it strikes me tomorrow morning after our trail walk.
7/25/2021 ano kato 16x20” at 3pm
3:39 PM:i went back & forth between 3 paintings today: 7/25/2021 ano kato 16x20” now looks like this. previous stages can be founding my earlier, 12 noon post below. this is the current state.
the second painting I worked on is 7/10/2021 creek oil. I had thought it was resolved, and we had it hanging in the house for the past 10 days or so. the more I looked at it, it became clear that it needed more work.it was too simplistic, too predictable. I hate when paintings, my own or others’, are predictable. for example, in the comparative before & after images below, the upward looking face of the guy in the blue plaid shirt really bothered me, as did the little girl’s hat. too perfect.i’m into blue stripes going down the side of a painting these days. but it’s not a gimmick; they all have a compositional raison d’être.
it’s getting there, but needs more work/play.
BELOW: the before & after
and finally, I made more modifications to the ever changing 6/10/2021 creek oil. I tried flipping it to a horizontal, which may just work; here are the two versions, vertical & horizontal, after the work/play I did today.
12 noon:I took 7/25/2021 ano kato 16x20” a step further, even though I said yesterday that I was considering leaving it spare. as it was. some creek tree trunks have entered the picture; some more color on the figures and yellow on the left & right borders. the green coat is kinda cool, don’t you think?
i’m going back & forth between a few paintings, as I love doing, so i’m not yet sure when this one’s turn will come again, if at all!
more as the day progresses.
BELOW: yesterday’ version (left) and how it looked moments ago
