City of Glass 5 - (Truthville, N.Y.)

Too tired to work last night but might as well have - solutions to the painting whizzing around my head. Getting there: I think the Tower is too graphic, i'll disguise it a bit. The ocean has real power and overwhelming the southern tip of Manhattan. There is an apocalyptic feel to the painting. The spot of Truthville balances now on top of the tower- the point where you escape its shadow after three days walking. Love how scale is undermined: a Tower that big, a wave that big...Need to sort out the top of the painting next: it stops you seeing the top of the Tower. Do i lose it or integrate it with colour into the rest of the painting or do I make it a threatening sky? It's too horizontal - I have to sort it out with a small block of angled colour which should create a big diagonal.

Linked by the pinks, the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut on the right-side have formed another mysterious tower-shape. Back to the studio to mix another grey for the sky using another blue. Lets see  what a difference Sennelier paints make to my colour - time to open the box as we get towards the end of the painting. If grey doesn't work, I'll try a quieter pink. That yellow-orange corner still niggles ...might work better if I change the top.

 

 An OK day. I shrunk everything to move Truthville (orange dot) down a couple of inches, with the benefit of more space around the edges. The dot is now parallel with the blue dot in Hope Falls but not yet as powerful. I have discovered zinc-white which makes colours slightly more transparent. The right-side has been simplified and the horizontals more subtle, now the angles are more prominent. Unsure about it though: the paint seems a bit samey, the colours too obvious, too known, too luscious. Time for some serious looking and testing. The best thing is the curve at the bottom, following the curve of Long Island, doing a job for the painting and holding up Manhattan. The painting is starting to de-flatten and the space more interesting. The Tower is going in tonight to disturb the space even more and I'm going to take out the yellow-orange corner. Its one colour too many.

 

 

 

 

'Truthville' on right alongside 'Hope Falls/hope falls....', in the studio after the first session. I'm going to try and make them work as a pair/diptych. Had a pink/grey palette in my head so mixed up a few colours before starting. First thoughts: simplify! The right-side needs ripping-up- too many colours, too many horizontals , too distracting. Truthville (the orange dot near the Vermont border) is firther north than Hope Falls (blue dot on left painting) so I'm going to shrink everthing in the new painting by 10% so that the dots are on the same eye-level. The two different scales will add and interesting element of discord to the piece. Could be a late night in the studio.