In Case You are Wondering . . .

I painted today . . .and Sunday. But I cannot post the image because it is a Christmas project that must remain confidential until after Christmas.

I did, however, write something I might pass along to my classes . . .enjoy!

I called it "Sunday Musings." . . . . . .

So far, since opening this blog to talk about and show my beginning oil painting experiences, I have covered nearly 150 canvases . . . give or take. What I set out to do was to rapidly roll up painting experience. One cannot do it at workshops or read about it or watch demos or even by watching DVDs. Pure and simply, to coin a phrase, you just gotta do it.

In the culling out of the inventory, I could clearly see that in just 7 months time there has been a lot of growth. There is a big difference in today’s paintings versus those of just a few months ago. And the differences are on all fronts. Here are a few things I have learned about painting . . .

Some people believe there are ‘rules.’ For geddaboudit ! Paint regardless of them. The only rules one must religiously obey are those for personal safety. Paint and see what happens!

Fear exists in every artist. It is there in all forms and is characterized in many odd ways. It’ll always be there. Read “Art and Fear” by Ted Orland. It is a great book that speaks directly to each of us on a personal level. Frightened? Intimidated? Heck with it! Paint anyway!

Sometimes, there is burn out. Invariably, something will appear and kick new excitement into the mix. If one wants to learn, paint anyway.

Art is not about painting ‘things.’ It is about painting relationships. Not love and friendship and that stuff. Creating relationships on a canvas has to do with developing true harmony and unity and, yes, contrasts or conflicts between colors, values, textures, shapes, sizes and directions. Details matter very little. If the relationships are right, the details just don’t matter. So, paint!

Very exciting ‘detail’ in a painting really isn’t detail. It only *looks like* detail.

The best paintings leave something to the imagination of the viewer. A little ambiguity can create a lot of excitement. Try to paint some!

The best teacher is experience, personally wrought, personally struggled and personally won. That also makes for much more pride in your own work. So, learn to love the struggle; Paint!

I have also learned that one can never quite reach their vision of what a completed work should look like. Our skills will always lag what our mind thinks we should be able to produce. It is like the mule attempting to reach the carrot at the end of the stick . . .one never reaches the carrot, but covers a lot of ground in the attempt. Chase the carrot; paint!

The learning is in the doing. Just do it!