old perspectives

I have made good progress on the "larger" pieces (12"x12", 16"x16") that have been hanging on my studio walls, though the smaller panels seem to be difficult to bring to closure.  My fascination with arcs and semicircles continues, and the three panels that are most exciting right now all contain the gesture.  I spent time today experimenting with the grout spreader in combination with natural arm gestures on a new panel, but ended up wiping it all out.  Some ghost marks remain, and will inform later layers, but all in all it didn't work to try to combine the two, at least not at this point.

As I worked, I found myself remembering all the cliff faces I've seen with arcs on them, future amphitheaters not yet eroded enough to merit the name.  I wonder if that is what is pulling me into this fascination. There is something that draws me to sandstone cliff faces, time and time again. I feel at home when I am in their presence.  They embody a permanence and stability that endure eons of storm and erosion, with a grace and beauty that never change. I realized that I haven't gone out to the park and visited the beautiful sandstone formations there since last fall.  When the weather warms a bit, I'll do that.

Perhaps because of this, I've returned to thoughts of painting from the real verses painting without references. But I don't want to leave the abstraction that I am doing.  I'm not sure where these impulses will take me, but a chunk of time spent on the panel whose image appeared in the penultimate post here has morphed a bit, and I'm posting the newest iteration above.