Farmer's Market, Ann Arbor

This turned out nothing like what I had intended.  It is also nothing like my usual efforts.  It has more of a "primitive" feel than I had planned, and the low contrast is the opposite of what I usually aim for.  And yet I love it.  I don't know if it's the arrangement of shapes or the arrangement of colors, or both.  But it sneaks up on me every time I look at it.  To me, there's a pleasing rightness, or completeness, or harmony to it, that is not really explained by its component parts.  I will say that this is one that I fought with, and won.  (Usually when I fight with a painting I lose badly.)  It was a slow process.  I did not go quickly through those watermelons or crates.  I struggled a lot with the salesperson (in real life this was a woman, but in my painting the figure is rather androgynous, so I'll let the viewer decide).  I struggled with the ground and with the people in the background.  At the end, I was disappointed because I thought the hours I put into it had been wasted.  But then I took another look, taking off my critical "eye," and found it pleasing.  I'm not sure I could part with this one.  My heart is in it.  The photo was taken at the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market when I was last there -- one of my favorite places in the world.  (No. 64, 8x8", on Raymar panel, Oct. 28, 2012)