It Doesn’t Have To Be Difficult To Be Good
Some days things click and I was long over due for such a day. Carla O’Connor once said to me, “You never know what small thing you learn in a workshop that will pay off,” and she was right. Years ago when we were just getting started, I took a workshop from Alex Powers (no relation… darn). After observing my struggle he said, “It doesn’t have to be difficult to be good.”
Yesterday the staff here at Creative Catalyst ‘kicked me out’ to go paint. There is a regular Monday morning group that gets together to paint a clothed model, a woman I have known for years. I began in my usual way and realized that my painting was not expressing what I knew about her, her personality and quirky style. I was not in the mood to have ‘one more bland painting’! I permitted a discussion to take place between me and my painting.
It went something like:
(Me) “What do you need to express what I know about Laura?”
(Painting) What do you most enjoy or notice about Laura?
(Me) Her angular features.
(Painting) So why not accentuate or exaggerate those features.
(Me) Because it won’t look like her.
(Painting) How do you know and why do you even care? You have at least five paintings that look like her. Why do you want one more?
(Me) But I might ruin this one!
(Painting) Forget that. You’ve ruined paintings for far less reason.
(Me) Okay… here it goes….
It was scary… it was fun “¦ it was easy “¦ it was hard edged “¦ it was how I felt “¦ it is how I’ve seen her for years and never had the nerve to paint! I was so jazzed and I’ve been happy ever since.
~Lynn~