Monday, October 25, 2010

Sunset Sail

Once a man would spend a week patiently waiting if he missed a stage coach, but now he rages if he misses the first section of a revolving door.

Simeon Strunsky

I fell in love with this picture the minute I saw it. Although a city girl, the feeling of solitude and isolation conveyed here really appealed to me. These colors are way out for me ~ but everyone in my class today loved them. Today was make-up day so I really didn't know anyone. Maybe they were just being nice. Anyway, for now I'm keeping this one vivid. It still has a long way to go but at least today I got the canvas covered.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Apples with Pot

If I try to be like him, who will be like me?

Yiddish proverb

The hardest thing about painting is making the painting one's own. Although my teacher says its fine to copy other people's work (particularly the masters), he strongly advocates setting up one's own still life or finding a particular place and taking your own photograph and working from it. Unfortunately, I tried that. I took a fabulous picture of a courtyard in St. Thomas and decided to paint it several weeks ago. After hours and hours of working on the stone courtyard I carefully placed the painting in the corner of my studio and dug out this photograph I found on Wet Canvas. I can claim no originality here but I am enjoying turning the photo into an oil painting with Carravagio in mind. That doesn't mean I don't like the above quote ~ it just means once in awhile it's okay to copy. There's a lot to be learned from other people's work.