So, I thought the issue with gesture was going to be kept on the back burner for a while, but here it is again, cropping up of its own accord, just a few days later, forcing me to deal with it.

There was an old swimmer photo, so old and so bad that I can't even tell if it is Jackson or Harris, but I have been keeping it on my desktop, fiddling with it, opening it up and staring at it from time to time, so I finally just attacked a canvas.  It seemed so detached from the Veronicas, that at first I just sketched it on the plastic wrapper of the canvas, without even bothering to unwrap, so sure was I that I would get over it once I saw the composition, but still I liked it.  I laid a ground, a sort of pinkish gesso, applied with a spatula (another unfamiliar process) and I let it dry.  Then I redrew the outline with conte pencils, just a few lines.

I picked up my biggest fattest brush (which I never do), mixed three shades of blue/turquoise/black/white in a plastic plate (another anomaly) and started laying big fat drippy stripes of paint on the surface.  The interesting thing about when I work like this is that I will either end up loving or hating the result...it's never just sort of ok.  I blocked in the boy, the tiles, the big splash and all those big fat sloppy blues...clearly I still have plenty to do, but I am liking the ease of this.

ok the experiment of the other day did not work out, separating the gesture from that which it describes, or at least, it has been set to a burner which is WAY in the back.  And there were a couple of other experiments outside of the usual realm, spawned more than likely by the ennui of the holidays...I'll post them as they come to completion.
But today I finally went back to work on Veronica .. Veronica of the floating hair, Veronica of the lighting across her chest, x marks the spot, right across the heart.
She peers at me tentatively through strands of hair, with her full lips and adolescent forms, a slight green yellow tinge to her asian skin...I just love this image.  I plan to just finish the bathing suit and fill in a bit more of the flesh, but then stop and wait for it all to dry before launching into a major glazing fest!!!  Looking forward.
ok, back to work before the boys get home...