A really old one, back in the time when I used oils… naive notion that everything has to be blended and perfect. I was unsatisfied with this one because it wasn’t blended thoroughly, but seeing it now it’s kind of cute – good composition, more refined focal point, interesting light-dark disposition… everything I wasn’t aware of while doing it. There’s more to painting than meets the (untrained) eye.

One of the first paintings in “Anno homini 2000+” series. This one started as an experiment in using Zorn’s very limited palette – yellow (ochre), red, black and white. I see many things that are wrong with this painting, but the main thing that bothers me is the fact that I couldn’t decide on whether I wanted to paint it realistically or expressively. I now see that the whole series had more or less the same problem – when conveying an idea every embellishment i.e. redundant detailing beyond the point when something depicted has already become what was intended diminishes the impact. Ideas are inherently devoid of human cognitive dualities, which is but a tool for our consideration.