cycladic revery, 32x32”, oil on linen, day 3
1:22 PM: after taking a scared shit to continue work on it break for a few days, i gingerly went back in and continued work on cycladic revery. while i loved the white spaces and suggestions rather than descriptions of figures, i felt it needed more. i didn’t like the red band i had introduced at the top, so i painted over most of it. then i introduced the blue at the top above the green, and added some color to a few of the figures, while maintaining the balance of the composition as my top priority, always.
this painting was started in 2007 and completed in 2010. it was inspired by photos i shot during that period at piso yialia beach, on the island of andros, beloved by andriots and visitors alike.
at the time, it was an isolated beach, accesed by climbing over the rocks separating it from the main beach, usually with just a handful of bathers who knew one another by name. PISO YIALIA literally means back yialia.
now of course, during the summer months, it’s jam packed and has, like many other seaside spots in greece, lost it’s poetic magic.
11/30/24 breakfast drawing, 6x4” colored pencil and watercolor on Strathmore paper
9:59 AM: yesterday afternoon, before leaving the studio, i mounted the breakfast drawing measuring just 6x4” in a much larger gold leaf frame we picked up on one of our trips a few years back.