Is Less More?

While trying to decide which of my two vaccinated arms hurt more, this photo popped up and added to the maelstrom of thoughts zooming around in my head, is less more? Is complexity progress? 

Winter's First Breath was painted 6 years ago and really it says everything about what I want to say with my work ….. rhythms of nature caught  in the moment with loose mark-making and vibrant hues. A simple line of trees which has led me to question myself. Is more detail and more complex composition and palette progress? Is where I am now better than where I was in 2016, am I moving forward or have I gone off on a tangent which is leading me away from where I wanted to go, will I have to back track? 

The answer is, I don’t know! One of my favourite poems  is ''The Road Not Taken'' by Robert Frost, and I think that this quote is probably near to the truth …

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

And that’s it in a nutshell, the world and I have moved on, is it progress? No, we've changed and we can’t go back to 2016; we are no longer the same. 

While I am contemplating on where I am with my work and whether I need to simplify I'll sit on this bench that I discovered while hiking in the vineyards yesterday, unfortunately the bottle of wine is a sculpture but perhaps a bottle of wine is the solution to my artistic conundrum….. ''in vino veritas'',  in wine there is truth goes the famous saying, might be worth giving it a shot.

 Hmmm! I'll let you know if it helps! Unfortunately, I've not got a bottle of Merlot to hand but I do have a bottle of Domina ( in German a Domina is a Dominatrix, kinky but it is also the name of a red wine from this region) and it came from the vineyards behind this bench. If a Domina/Dominatrix can’t sort me out, what can?