Pleased as I was last Monday with the previous week’s paintings, the only work I accomplished in PAINT this week was the repairs to last week’s collection. (Drawing in charcoal and graphite not included.) Above is Cathedral Ledge with very little added in the way of actual paint. Dry brushing of the sun’s rays proved to be a winning technique. The only other major change was the addition of green. Before I could think about it twice, I hit that treeline in the distance with a mix of ultramarine and cad yellow. Then I stopped and considered–there could not have been leaves, certainly no green leaves–if those were deciduous trees. I remembered the line as being very dark–but were they leafless or were they evergreen? If evergreen, what I had just painted was wrong shape and the wrong color. Same is true for the shrubbery on the face of the ledge.

Unless one of my learned readers tells me why the green is totally wrong in terms of artistic values, I will leave the green as is, trusting that some good artistic instinct guided me to that place and the place is authentic.

I also had to repair the Zorn portrait. Turns out, we have yet another week on this project, and I am beginning to hate it. The head, Cameron noticed, was a wee bit to far to the left, as oriented to the hands, so I had to start over. This, my third head, is not as good as the second head–it may be in a better place, but it belongs to a different person. Judge for yourself:

FIRST HEAD SECOND HEAD THIRD HEAD
I think tonight we start on a new project, and I am SO ready!

Other repairs:

And finally–after months of agonizing, I plunged ahead to maybe ruin (temporarily) a portrait of the White Goddess, Isis, by imagining the shadow of blinds over her rump, which was so large and white an expanse that I felt compelled to break it up somehow. Success? Or back to the easel? Ideas are welcome!