continued work on "gained vision II" / by Philip Tarlow

4:13 PM: i was interrupted at 12:30, when i had to go to a meeting involving the fire mitigation commitee i volunteered for. as it turned out, they were just doing some logistics and i didn’t really need to be there, so i left. but it took a while for me to get back into it.

it’s at a point now where it sings, which is always the goal and the vision. as the eye roams the surface, blues show up just when you least expect it, and yet you feel that’s exactly where they belong. the reds of the garment worn by the main figure is muuch like a beating heart of the painting, and contribute significantly to the singing. the yellow horizontal up top aligns with the yellow triangle on the lower right. and the walking figure with his plaid shirt take the composition from abstraction just enough. right now, i don’t feel like there’s any more to do tomorrow on this one.

the work i just did made me appreciate even more this priceless quote from painter gary komarin, whose work i admire greatly.

“My paintings proceed without preconception. I paint to find out what it is that I am going to paint. I think of myself as a stagehand who sets up the conditions necessary for drama to unfold. The very best paintings are most often those that fail the most. Once a painting has achieved a life of its own, when it speaks back to you as a painter, this is a good place to be. For me, the best paintings are those that paint themselves.”