jazz 20 35x37” as it looked at the end of my painting day today
jazz 19, 16x40” as it looked at the end of my painting day
2:32 PM: thunderstorms this morning have given way to partly cloudy skies with moderate winds. it’s been an interesting day, starting with small but significant refinements to jazz 19, moving on to further work on jazz 19.
on jazz 19, i made adjustments to the central male figure, which seems, as i gaze at it now, to have allowed the composition to find it’s note. it sings.
on this third day of it’s existance, jazz 20 has taken a few leaps. two figures familiar from previous paintings: the 17th c. japanese female figure and the walking plaid shirted figure inspired by photos of the main character in the good doctor tv series, now dominate the composition. the japanese figure was painted over yesterday’s bird image, some of which peeks through. and the doctor figure was painted over the drawing of a violinist i made yesterday. the catfish is new, inspired by an edo period woodblock by an unknown artist. the catfish was associated in japan with earthquakes, which were believed to have happened due to an imbalance in the flow of chi between heaven and earth. the quirky cats surrounding the catfish, which you can’t see in the painting, may be trying to restore the cosmic harmony.
as far as it’s appearance in this composition, it’s serving a similar function, and is critical to the balance of this composition. we’ll see where she goes tomorrow!