Revisiting "It Was a Good Year"

Sometimes painting is like writing. The story is so much in my head, that I fail to communicate essential details as happened with this painting. Truthfully, I expected a few comments, because I thought it was a pretty cool painting. But as the comments came in, very few actually addressed the piece itself. They were generalized comments, suspiciously avoiding the painting I'd posted. So I had a couple of conversations about it with my consistant viewers (family) and was enlightened. Where I thought it was obvious that the man was seated and either dozing or relaxed in his chair simply enjoying a good glass of wine and the sun, it turned out to be confusing. Was he asleep standing? Was he standing up at a bar? Was he drunk and about to fall over?

Well, I tackled the problem today and lifted with a wet sponge areas behind the figure to create a chair back. Now I hope it is easy to see him seated. In doing that, I also disturbed some of the implied plant leaves and stems, so needed to work on those a bit which meant adding a layer and thus more detail. I also warmed up and gave some texture to the two pots.

So it may be that this is a painting I need to paint again, with a better plan to tell my story, but I hope this reworked painting is more readable.