I am all set to do a final alizarin crimson glaze over the oranges in this piece. I am very excited about the dissapearing greens in this piece.
On the disappearing greens This is the quiet genius of the piece. Those greens in the lower water/reflection zone are doing exactly what you love — appearing and dissolving, never demanding. They're holding the teal/green thread without announcing it. The alizarin glaze could inadvertently shift your eye away from them if it pulls the whole canvas warm. Something to watch.
That slate-blue strip of sky upper right —I have not decided if it stays as-is after the glaze? The alizarin won't touch it obviously, but the contrast between a deepened orange field and that cool blue sliver will intensify. Could become more powerful. Could also feel orphaned.
Two New Works in Progress — The Cool Side of Floating
Today the studio holds two canvases, both early, both asking different questions.
The floral piece is finding its architecture. The plan is to establish a full A-to-Z clockwise rotation — highest contrast anchored in the upper right corner, with a gradual value shift moving counter-clockwise from light to dark, and the return journey clockwise from dark back to light. The lavender and grey ground is already doing quiet work. The scattered reds and oranges feel provisional, which is exactly right at this stage. They'll either earn their place or disappear.
The small landscape study is a return to the floating concept — but this time on the cool side. Cerulean and teal where the orange once lived. The reflection below the tree mass is already behaving well, holding its relationship to the form above without competing. What the warm version resolved through heat and contrast, this one will have to resolve through temperature shift and restraint.
Both pieces are unresolved. That is the point. The interesting decisions haven't been made yet.
More to come.
The atmosphere is already doing almost everything — that luminous yellow-gold dissolving into the blue-grey sky mass is as Turner-adjacent as anything you've made. The horizontal band of green and the two small structures are barely whispered, which is exactly right.
On the Fibonacci left move
Right now the tree cluster sits just right of center, which feels slightly resolved — the eye knows where to land. Shifting the primary structural explanation to the Fibonacci left position will reintroduce productive ambiguity. The water reflection below will have to follow, which could make the whole lower third feel more like pure phenomenon than description.
The "how little is needed" question
This piece is already proving its own thesis. Those pink tree verticals are almost not there — and yet they're holding the whole middle zone. The two structures on the horizon read as almost accidental, which gives them enormous weight. The danger in the next session is the temptation to explain more. The painting is whispering. I really want to maintain that impression.