Today, I worked on the painting for about three hours. But, without the model. As time goes by, I feel more and more that I want my paintings to be a marriage of observed reality, and my imagination. Rachmaninov has this wonderful series, called Variations on a Theme by Paganini. The melody is there, alive, outside of the material world, and he pulls the melody down, and allows it to pass through the filter of his imagination in dozens of different ways, producing variations. Painting is like that. Only, our melody is not outside of space and time, but rather, is material and present. We then take that corporeal melody, and let it filter through our imagination, and from the sincerity of our brushes comes the variation on the theme.
YES. K
Coming along!! I like the gauze — the ‘bony’ elements of the back, which I didn’t care for in your nude/cello piece, are deftly done. The legs are beautiful, the shading terrific. Yes! Keep painting. The Alperts book is going to be mailed today. Enjoy. I’m more and more thinking of you as the Maestro del studio! Fred
Thank you Fred! I’m really enjoying this painting, though I know it is far from its final destination, in that there is much that I’m sure will change. But, I am really enjoying painting the back, the contour of the back, the contour of the legs. I’m understanding a bit more about Titian, I think (hope), these days.
And yes, your wife has liquidated your entire account, purchased the nude/cello piece, and so I have shipped it to you. Should be arriving this evening. Strange, she said she was gluing the painting above your bed, to the ceiling, so it can be viewed for eight hours at a clip.