I recently purchased Haidee-Jo Summers' new book Vibrant Oils and found it helpful in rethinking this older painting. On page 47 she writes "Avoid these common compositional mistakes: Directional lines that lead the viewer's eye towards the edge of the painting and then out the picture space." In the top painting I have a line running from the top to the bottom in the painting and the bowl and my eye seems to slip downward. In the bottom painting, I removed the line and consolidated the colors, now my eye stays in the bowl and lingers there.
