2:22 PM: i’m still contemplating fear no more II and getting a feel for whether it needs more work.
so i started fear no more III, which is in her early stages, using the same two dancing figures as II.
i also made further additions to the 2019 creekscape i found the other day in a pile of 2019 paintings.
fear no more III, 20x24” on day 1
fear no more II , 20x24”, oil & collage on portrait linen, as she looked moments ago.
2:09 PM: after making a small but significant tweak to fear no more this morning, i got started on fear no more II which, for the moment, is a horizontal, 20x24” a leopard sculpture appears on the lower right, along with 2 dancers center stage. already there are 2 pieces of collaged quill pen drawings, and i’m sure there will be more as the painting progresses.
BELOW: on the right is the tweaked fear no more. the rectangular collaged paper at the top has had it’s upper left corner rounded out, making a significant difference for the better to the entire composition.
2:32 PM: fear no more has taken an unexpected turn. where will she go from here?
2:32 PM: i found yesterday’s version of fear no more too busy and painted over it with bismuth vanadate yellow and then worked into it, introducing a figure i photographed from above in a museum. it’s impossible to reproduce this particular yellow in a photo, so this is the best i could do.
as well, mid-morning i pulled our this creekscape from a stack of 16x20” paintings in my studio and added the blues you see,here, which definitely livened it up.
2019 creekscape, oil on linen, reworked today
fear no more, 24x20” oil& collage on portrait linen
fear no more, 24x20” oil & collage on portrait linen, as she looked at the end of my painting day
2:51 PM: yesterday’s painting is now titled fear no more, a title i borrowed from a poet friend; i still have to check & make shure she’s ok with that! this is the current state, as i prepare to leave my studio for the day.
fear no more, 24x20” oil on portrait linen on day 1
1:38 PM: after cutting 3 more pieces of 24x20” portrait linen yesterday, i began a new series of 3 paintings titled fear no more. the early stage of this first in the series was inspired by photos i shot in an athenian museum. the visitors to the museum, as viewed from the balcony above, mingle with ancient marble statues of Godesses. i was gazing through a transparent surface with the black dotted patterning you see.
after doing my series of 3 dancing creek pieces, i felt myself longing for my views from above material, which i have a lot of. there’s something in that perspective that lights my fire.
i ran out of juice about 30 minutes ago, so i stopped here. to be continued tomorrow morning.
DETAIL
12:13 PM: this morning i added a seemingly small but compositionally significant mark to the composition, it’s on the very lower right, a dash of yellow.
and on dancing creek II, i added a collaged piece of quilll drawing on the lower left, balancing out the composition.
you can evaluate whether this make a difference to the overall composition in the before & after images BELOW.
1:31 PM: new developments in dancing creek III include the introduction of red & yellow, as well as several collaged pieces of drawings. gazing now at I, II & III, they have an obvious relationship & a common theme: movement, joy, dancing. i’m taking a bit of a break & may go into town to do some food shopping, and i’ll see once i’m back what more, if anything, dancing creek III needs from me.
BELOW: dancing creek l, ll and lll
dancing creek III, 24x20” oil & collage on portrait linen, as she looked moments ago
dancing creek III, 24x20” oil on portrait linen as she looks at the end of day1
2:21 PM: i started the third in the dancing creek series. here’s how she looks on day 1.
3:12 PM: this afternoon i made a colored pencil and quill pen drawing on a piece of 20x40” paper,looking around the studio at mikela talking on the phone with a friend, the vermeer study to her left and jars of brushes.
afternoon drawing, 20x40” on paper
10:06 AM: upon entering my studio this morning, i cast that all important gaze at dancing creek II. it passed the test with flying colors, and am delcaring it complete. with the caveat that you never know!
abstracted realism as i like to call it, is a tricky business. if the descriptive factor, whether it be figures, landscape, or whatever takes precidence, the composition as a whole suffers. that’s one big reason why i introduced collaged elements yesterday. they tend to break up the predictability of, in this case, the figure, allow the composition as a whole to sing it’s song, as well as introducing some questions left to the viewer, like…what’s going on above his head? is that a cloud, perhaps a hat…or just a white form with calligraphic marks that breaks up the grey?
dancing creek II, 24x20” oil on portrait linen
