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.
gorgeous painting robin! i wanted to add that another solution is to soften the edges at that intersection. since the yellow and the gray are close in value, they would tend to blend. just wanted to add that idea because the diagonal line is so dynamic.
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