Thanks so much, Thomasin! It was an interesting challenge to use the figures to frame the still life, as you said. I guess I could have marginalized the figures even more. I'm working on these problems with every canvas, and I am feeling that it is a long, gradual process to understand what one is doing and to actually have the control to do it. It is both intuitive and intellectual, and they have to work together. I think if I had tried to paint this years ago it would have looked ridiculous. (The figures would have overbalanced the center to a shocking degree.)
Thanks for noticing the magazine drooping over the edge of the table! We're thinking alike because that was (like the map in the other painting) something I especially enjoyed painting.
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