Thoughts on The Lonnin oil-painting

I’m letting the work settle with me for a while. Not sure if it’s finished or not or what direction to take it in. I often find if I wait a while and meditate in nature then the answer will come.  I want to keep the rough linen borders as a part of the presentation of the final piece I know that much. So that it says something about the whole process and history of the materials for the piece. I like the fact that I used the old ways of preparing the linen. That was meditative in itself. You are dictated to by the pace of preparation and drying times, 12 hours for the rabbit-skin glue and 10 for the gesso. In times gone by artists would have to grind and prepare their own pigments and paints. It really made me think. I got impatient just preparing the surface to work on! Here’s some working drawings as I used them in the studio.