The Year Long Canvas has had several major changes today, and you can compare them with the previous version below, as well as with the very first start of the original painting from a year ago. I worked the new additions to the composition from all sides today and offered all four orientations of her for your review. You can zzzzzoom in and see her texture – not quite as thick as I had imagined it would be at her first year anniversary.
This project might not be 100% finished at this point. If I look at this painting long enough I will always see something I would like to change…it is a sickness…never being satisfied. But perhaps my fatigue with the entire project will prevent any further work. I cannot say that this newest version is my favorite of all the stages of the past year, but it is certainly among the top three. It has indeed been an exercise in patience, perseverance, dissatisfaction and approval, unease and comfortable-ness with my own work. If the lesson to be learned was that I should trust myself more, that has been accomplished. I was at times discouraged that I would ever be able to make a whole new painting over the top of many other incarnations, but I did it, over and over.
My son says this painting reminds him of RIO – a landscape in other words if it is placed horizontally. It does not remind me of Rio, but it does speak to me of action, energy, optimism and fun. So maybe it is RIO after all! I cannot decide which orientation I prefer…I really do not care at this point. I just like the color, texture and pattern of it, and most definitely color is the thing that grabs people first, then maybe the dramatic composition. The sensuality of color is usually what most people respond to in art and try as I do sometimes I cannot do quiet neutrality. It bores me to tears.
I have had a great year with this project and I hope you have too! Phew…I think we almost made it. Thanks for hangin’ in there!
Previous version on the left and the very beginning of it last March on the right.
the creative epiphany 
love them all. The last one I see three people dressed in black crossing a street with a stoplight in Paris.
LikeLike
LOVE that, MB!
LikeLike
As I scroll quickly through the photos of the different orientations I sense that riot of color and energy. It’s definitely hard to say which orientation I prefer. Such wonderful work! I’m not sure why mazel tov leapt to my mind when I thought of how to congratulate you.
LikeLike
Perfect!!!!
LikeLike
Love the colour and energy. It’s so vibrant, and the fact that I have no preference as to orientation just goes to show how well balanced it is. Congrats Jo! It’s fabulous.
Alison
LikeLike
I would want all of the wonderful paintings that are stacked there like Colorado geology! There are so many magnificent paintings layered in there! What a journey….now I want to do it!
LikeLike
see ya next week! thanks for your comments!
LikeLike
You’ve come a long way with this one, Jo Ann, congratulations. For me, it’s the horizontal one. And what’s interesting about the paintings as they’ve gone along…is that each time I thought you were done, the next variation showed me otherwise. Everything has been an improvement, though sometimes subtle. The painting has never regressed. How many of us can say that about our lives?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow that was a nice comment! I have had several regressions in my life and they are not pretty! Fodder for my novel however – writing is almost finished and I am nervous but adrenalized!
LikeLike
Keep us posted on your novel. Ever thought of dripping little teases of it it out for us on your blog? I just did that on Friday for mine. Even that was like writing the novel itself: hard!
LikeLiked by 1 person