Play...

Blueberry Tip   oil/canvas   6 x 6 x 1.5

Sometimes I get overwhelmed in problem-solving in my larger paintings....pushing will not help.  It is all a matter of consideration and time.  It is then that I need to play.  Smaller paintings are the answer.  These small works are often done of fruits and vegetables where I paint what I see.  Their forms are already complex enough and the problems are usually readily solved.  Most of these small works are color-driven and provide an opportunity to experiment with color that lies just outside of the reality, the local.  I enjoy pushing those color limits just a bit.  There are other notions to be practiced as well....the painting of a bunch of small berries as a mass, rather than each berry one-by-one.  This lesson can be transferred to painting hair, bushes and a host of other things that benefit from massing.  Play.  With the benefits of play, I am further prepared to tackle more complex problems. Taking a break to play keeps us lighter....emotionally and with brush in hand.

Inspiration

Blueberry Tip   oil/canvas   6 x 6 x 1.5

I am inspired by so very many things.....sometimes it's enough to make me quiver with excitement! This past weekend we watched a movie entitled "Something Within Me", a documentary about the introduction of the arts in a poor Catholic school St. Augustine's in South Bronx. The music, especially enlivened their lives and raised all of their test scores. I don't think that this would come as a surprise to most artists. The wonderful band instructor in the film told them that the rhythm is much more important than any of the individual notes, and encouraged the young musicians to improvise with confidence, even though they missed notes here and there. WOW! That underscored just exactly how I feel about painting! The group gesture is always more important that the individual elements in any work, more important than exactitude in any of the pieces parts.....it was profound to me. "Blueberry Tip" is a painting in which I was challenged to paint the gesture of the bunch of berries. Hmmmmm.....more difficult than it seems.....always is.