The little painting below is giving me more trouble than it should, and I may have to resort to sanding down some of the thicker paint strokes, but at least I made some progress on it over the last week.
Likewise, I'm not happy with the splashy strokes on these:
But they'll improve over time. It's just weird going from 30"x40"s to 6" pieces.
For over a year now I've had the idea in the back of my mind to make some changes to parts of this painting. I wasn't satisfied with four of the faces, nor with the exact expression on the young woman in the center. I still have to make a minor adjustment to her left eye, but otherwise I'm satisfied with the other folks.
I've got five of these little paintings to complete; one of them has a bright orange shirt, another features an expansive gesture. I've been concentrating on the two big museum pieces for a while now, but I need to get back to the America and the New York City series.
For the better part of the last week, I've been fretting over a decision to take out the horizontal woodwork line at knee level of the people viewing the paintings. I placed the painting at the top of my upstairs hall so I could see it with fresh eyes when I came up the stairs, and over time it became clear that the woodwork line was too distracting; there's already enough going on with the floor planks. The eye needs a little room to rest. So this morning I mixed up some color as close to the original wall as possible and went at it. I'm very happy with the result.
Recent painting:
Even with careful measuring, the lines of the floor undulate. Still I persist.
This is the third in my newest series on aluminum panel.
The changes I've made to the two big pieces are relatively minor. But I did resurrect one of the tiny 6" paintings from last year:
I forgot to post yesterday's pieces.
Thankfully, it's been raining steadily all day. This means: no yard work. I don't have to water anything, and it would not be a good idea to pull weeds for an hour. So here's today's studio work:
I actually took this a little further but haven't taken an update photo yet.
Today I worked on the wood trim again; using tape I tried to ensure straight edges. But some of the wainscoting has a curve to it, so where the curve meets the straight parts I have to soften the transition between colors. It'll take another week or two to get it all right. But the painting does seem to be coming together as a whole. And I was able to put in the foundation for the crutch.
I just couldn't face another day of working on the two big museum paintings— well, actually, I did straighten out the ceiling line on the right side of Messages— so I went back to a few things that have been gathering dust in the studio. Started with this one:
Then went on to
I was so tired of the neutral colors that I added some Violet Grey and mixed it with Brilliant Yellow Pale. Also some Transparent Red Earth.
Followed that with the work I had been thinking about on the mother's blouse:
And smooshed some white on this one, using a paper towel instead of a brush:
Finally, since these used a similar palette, I worked on them both:
I do think the woodwork is going to take forever. But at least I made some strides with it today, while I recuperated from a nasty case of food poisoning overnight.
Concentrating on 2-4 paintings is a chore. I want to have fun! But I do need to get these finished reasonably soon.
More work on the wall trim!
Last Monday i was enthusiastic about the start of a new work week, and then it all evaporated. Today I had the best of intentions, but only worked on two instead of three pieces. Here they are:
Standing Room, work in progress (click on image for larger view)
At least it's something. I think I owe email to everybody I know; will try to get to that next.
