[July 2, 2008]
I decided to stay with painting, because I’ve found it takes time to get into its rhythm. I worked on the Lucas painting, but became frustrated with it–I had one of the moments when I wonder why I am doing this. The other time I sometimes think this is when I look at all the orders I have. I am actually very happy to have so much work to do, but it becomes overwhelming, and I find myself thinking of all the works to copy while I am working on a particular piece. They have all entered my head, as I envision going through the steps to reproduce them.
After about two hours, I switched over the Mazur painting, which is going a lot better. I realized they both have the same palette: green/naples yellow field with blue sky (the Mazur more Cerulean, the Lucas more Ultramarine. I think I need to buy a tube of Cobalt blue to use in the shadows of the Mazur.)
Luke and Sara (the couple from the education workshop) stopped by again; they like the new donations. Sara says that she likes paintings better when they’re unfinished– I agree. I said I thought that was why I was working on everything at once–starting something is much more fun than finishing it. She is now thinking of having me copy a painting she requested in Greg’s project.
Greg has been here photographing the rest of the collection, a little bleary-eyed at the end of the day after being in the basement storage room for hours.
I felt I had a good day painting the Mazur–it went fast. I am glad this painting is going well, as it is for Bryan, who did a lot of work for the installation. Of course, I want to make the best work for everyone, I like thinking about who a piece is for. I came to a point where I had to let the paint dry a little–I think I can finish it in another day. I worked for a short while on another Magritte, and measured out some other works to prepare for reproducing them.
