In past posts, I’ve mentioned how I tend to focus on paintings with only one object in them or when I’ve tried to branch out and do something slightly more complicated. It’s taken me a long time to feel like I can try and tackle more complicated scenes, but I’ve been enjoying that lately.
One thing I’m finding is that it helps to feel a connection to the photo. I’ve been interested in this photo that I took at Crex Meadows in Wisconsin, but have not felt ready to try it. That worked a lot better than another one I tried recently. It was also a photo from the same trip. For some reason, I thought that I should try to paint that one, since backgrounds are still a mystery and it had an interesting, but blurry background. I thought it would be easier to tackle, but I was approaching it from the standpoint of something that I “should” do. It did not go well.
One other thing……When I’ve finished several recent paintings, I’ve felt that I’ve done the best work that I can currently do and that feels good. Afterwards, of course, I can see things that I wish I had done differently and areas I’d like to improve. I also know there are things I can’t even see yet, which also need to be worked on. However in the moment with a paint brush in my hand, it just feels good to be reaching and stretching.
I feel a special connection with those paints and that includes the first one that I ever painted of a cat. It was during the first set of painting classes with Kat. It was a painting of Ella and by any standards, it is not a good painting. I was terrified to try and paint a cat, but I did it and when I was done I felt that I had done the best that I could based on what I could do at that point.
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