Being A Director

I think it is important how a painting leads the viewer around the painting by how the shapes, values, colors, line and their placement are designed.  That is not to say I am always successful in doing it all the time.  Also sometimes a painting can be viewed like a stage where there is a star and costars and the placement of those characters can be important so that the eye is always brought back to the star but appreciating the costars in the process.  We could and do sometimes paint shapes just for the beauty of the shape but even then that shape can have been designed in such a way as to make the eye travel back to the point of interest.  

Painting With Confidence

Early in my art education in a workshop we were told that we should not think about the next painting being our masterpiece. We were told to think the painting we were working on was to be our masterpiece.  I think the more we paint and learn the more confidence we have in believing we can paint a masterpiece.  I think that no matter how bad the beginning of a painting looks it can be our best work.  It can be what we wanted to express.  I have watched wonderful artists paint and they do not seem worried about what someone watching them thinks.  To do that we must paint with confidence and joy.  

I recently watched a known artist doing a portrait painting.  At the beginning of the painting it did not look like much but gradually began to look beautiful.  Close to the end of his painting I kept thinking the mouth does not look right.  He waited until the end to put on his finishing touches and that included the mouth and the eyes. The person in the painting then came to life.  The artist knew what he was doing and was not thinking about what everyone thought but was painting with confidence.  

Continuing to learn and persevere is a confidence builder and Glorifies God that gave us the gift.  

Artist Expression

I read a thought provoking book someone gave me. It is a New York Times Bestseller titled STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST by Austin Kleon. It makes me think about years ago when I gave a demo to Mid-Southern Watercolorist in Little Rock. I was talking about how people take a workshop from someone they admire and then want to paint like them. I used a parallel of a new carpenter wanting to create something like a master carpenter they admired. I said that even if they could do it then people would think it was done by the master carpenter. Over the years I have seen art work and I believe I knew who they had taken a workshop from. I think now that that is OK, but the more we study many other artists we admire than we hopefully begin to express things in our own way. It is a blessing to continue to learn. 

https://www.amazon.com/Steal-Like-Artist-Thin…/…/ref=sr_1_1…