3:45 PM: i’ve been looking at the jazz series since it was created, tacked to my studio wall. this one, jazz 9, was completed may 26 of this year. i kept feeling like it needed something more, and today was the day. i added one more plaid shirted figure seen from above, who was photographed in conjunction with the good doctor tv series, where he plays the lead role. in addition, i added the horizontal orange stripe in the upper right corner.
i think this is a great example of how a good composition can become better; the newly added figure seems to fill a void, adding a further tough of mystery to an already mysterious pictorial event.
BELOW are BEFORE & AFTER images.
12:24 PM: i had started painting over an 80x20” canvas with a new painting of piso yialia, the beach on the island of andros, in greece. it was so boring i couldn’t stand it, so yesterday i made some marks using oil pastel. then, this morning, following the work i did on hu 1, i looked through the tubes of paint that had been lying around unused, for months, maybe years. i came across one, made by lefranc, called sahara yellow. it was so old that the cap wouldn’t screw off, even with pliars. so i cut off the bottom of the tube & squeezed a bunch out into an old miso container, along with a squeeze of another old tube of cadmium red purple. with the stretched canvas lying flat on my painting table, i made sweeping marks, then later on painted into one area with those characteristic white creek bubbles i love so much, in a blue ground.
for now, i’ve designated this my experimental canvas, and we’ll see where it goes. interesting to see it hanging nevt to the current series.
10:40 AM: this morning, after that all important overnight break from observing hu 1, i observed thatt the grey that i surrounded the figures with yesterday was a tad mindless and predictable.
so a little while ago, i interrupted my breakfast to make a few changes while the painting was still tacked to the wall. ultimately though, i needed to take it down and work on it lying flat on my painting table. i also adjusted the left arm of the dancing figure, which looked as though she had bulging biceps. when you compare the BEFORE and AFTER images posted here, you’ll see what i did, and, with only those few changes, the entire painting jumps to life. am i exaggerating?
