November 16th, 2013

I couldn't figure out how to look at the California paintings.  For a long time.  I wasn't sure if I liked them.  There was something irritating about them.  I still haven't seen them stretched flat, but will next weekend. We took 3 down to frame yesterday.  

Then one day this week I glanced at them there on the computer screen at work and I realised what was different about them.  They're deep.  Not philosophically.  Space wise.  I haven't painted this many paintings with this kind of depth in a long time.  It's a kind of depth a lot of painters try to achieve, but I had slowly gotten rid of that foreground, middle ground background over the years.  So, painting fast and paying a lot of attention to the contrast of that sunshine and the cool shadows, I naturally created this depth.  

On the left are two California paintings.  On the right, two Jiagenba paintings.  

It's nice to discover these things and better understand what's happening in the works.