Today, a workshop participant emailed me to ask, paraphrased:
Do you find that art is more mental than physical?
…which is a perspective I’d not considered before - but the answer, for me, is YES. I spend loads more time sketching, messing with values, trying different compositions, etcetera… than I do actually painting. My prep sketchbooks are full of ideas which haven’t been painted, and most never will be.
Once in a while, I’ll do something unpremeditated - just for the play of slapping colorful, buttery paints around on a surface. And sometimes these even turn out, as witness this piece (painted in a day, based on an idea that popped into my head the night before). Of course, if I’m painting en plein aire, then that’s without planning - but it’s also small and the investment of just an hour or two. Doing anything else requires more; I mean, how could someone just plop a 30×40 canvas on the easel and start in on a representational piece without a roadmap of some sort?
Maybe there are savants who can do that…but I ain’t one of ‘em.
Painting: “Suspended Animation”, 20×11 oil on Yupo - Legacy Contemporary, Scottsdale - 480.945.1113
Entries (RSS)