When Oil Paint goes to sleep

A few weeks ago, I decided to repaint the background and especially the bottle. I hadn't touched my background since I first laid down the dark greens and it was bothering me, especially where the bottle meets the cloth. The bottle has its own rich local colour, a kind of cool, bluish green that differs from the green wall, and yet it sits in front of the wall so some of the wall has to be seen inside the bottle. Later, highlights and reflections will be added to the bottle.

What surprised me was how quickly the background dried and then faded away into the linen. It's now a kind of dull matte and the bottle green is almost lost in the wall green. Apparently, the expression used is that the paint has gone "dormant" and won't reawaken until it is varnished.

The first photo below shows what the background looked like immediately after I applied it. The second shows the impact of drying, one week later.