at jay's suggestion ...

Jan Hart, the artist who hosted/taught the New Mexico workshop, was assisted by her son, Jonathan (or Jay), who is also an artist (her other son's a musician). At critique one day Jay suggested I try a tertiary color scheme; this unfinished painting is the result. Looking at it now, I see that fussing with the little shapes is hindering reading the space ... especially in the parallelogram(?)-shaped formation in the top-middle section; maybe a neutralizing glaze over the area to the right of it will set that area back in space and make this less troublesome. May have to glaze over the saved whites here too though; it's too jumpy. Well, I do like the colors and the cascading pale shapes in the foreground. Those pinons just fascinate me ... leaving some circles intact and pulling a wet brush across others to let them run and bleed: they're fun to paint--you muck them up, but they still look like something!

Oh JMJ! I just noticed that one pinon dead center at the top ... Just when I say how I love them ... Well, it's easy to fix. One lesson I mean to take to heart from the NM workshop: when something bothers you, add more of it! It's counterintuitive, but it works. Dilution.