I’m annoyed! The trouble is, I’m not able to say exactly why I am annoyed. This is a common condition at this stage in the production of a picture. The basics are all there, but it is not possible to move to completion because something is not right, although it is not possible to identify the problem exactly.
I am quite pleased with the overall development of the idea, and I suppose that the problem might have to do with the balance between elements of the design. It does include a portrait (done from a combination of an old photograph and memory, of somebody as they were in the mid-1980s). So it is possible that there is a need for some refinement there. The central object (a tree trunk) perhaps needs to be given more of a sense of three-dimensionality in space. I’m not sure. Maybe the difficulty I have arises because there is something amiss there which escapes my awareness at the moment. Anyway: whatever the cause of my condition, I am annoyed.
I know on the basis of previous experience that there is absolutely nothing that can be done at the moment. All that I can do is to leave the canvas on the easel, wash my brushes so that I am not tempted to fiddle all the time, and give it time. There will come a moment, I know, when the question that needs to be addressed is asked pointedly and with clarity. Until then, however, all that I can do is put up with the niggle and hope for the best. I’m biding my time.