Stuck on this one

 

This is a work in progress, something I'd normally never consider posting. The painted portion is about 12 X 9 inches. If I take it all the way out to the margins of the sheet of Bristol board, it will be about 16 X 13 inches.

And that's the problem. I don't know if I want to paint it to the margins. At one point, the thing looked like the outline of a head and neck. I can still see that part when I look at it from a distance. Now it's a bit amorphous, but it retains a certain volume that I think might disappear if I fill out the picture and border it with a mat. 

I've done a number of pictures that bewilder me while I'm working on them, but this one has me more perplexed than any one I can recall. Part of that is due to the strange way it appears "right" when I turn it 90 degrees one way or another, or even 180 degrees. 

Here's the thing turned 90 degrees counterclockwise:

 

It's not just the orientation that confuses me, though. At times I'll stare at one of the forms and it seems to change to something else, similar to some optical illusions that change character depending on your preconception or whatever (like, for instance, the well-known one that changes from an old lady to a young woman).

At any rate, I can't imagine when this one will be done, because even if I decide to leave the outer areas unpainted I still have tons of work to do to "close out" the forms that are partially painted around the perimeter. Ugh. This is one where the process is not enjoyable, at least not often.

November 2 update

This picture is inching along. I'm kind of committed now to taking it to the margins of the sheet. Each time I think about closing out the perimeter forms I find myself extending new facets outward... an endless process that just won't allow me to call it done until the whole thing is bounded by a mat (or "mount" for those of you in the UK). Each time I've done one of these cascades and matted and framed it I have an initial period of regret that the mat overlaps little bits that I painted. It's as if I feel I wasted time putting in pieces that are then invisible under the mat.

Anyway, here's where the picture stands at the moment. I'm now in the process of working my way around the perimeter, almost in a spiral, pushing the forms outward, walking around, carrying the picture to look at it in different lights, looking for the patterns and rhythms..... this is the peak of the stage where I find myself mentally taxed. There was a moment yesterday where I noticed my hand was shaking when I tried to put in a new form, and I had to collect myself and remember that, ultimately, it doesn't matter if a form isn't "right," because no one will ever look closely enough to spot the errors.

Here you go:

 

I guess  you can see how difficult it is for me to adjust the color balance in the photo. You'll have to take my word for it that the unpainted areas are white. The rest of the colors - those in the painted areas - are fairly accurate, although, again, it really depends on where the sun is and how the ambient light affects the picture. There are times during the day when this thing really takes on a depth that sort of disappears under artificial light.

I just noticed that the "white" areas in the photo as it appears above are almost equal to the actual dimensions of the the unpainted areas of the sheet of Bristol board, except that the right hand portion in reality is a bit wider. As you can see, still lots to do on this one, but not nearly as much as a few days ago (thank god).