I have been painting a lot of commissions for Christmas. I love painting for people who tell me they are happy with their paintings or that I have captured a certain "spirit" or personality. Those times make my day but I find that I get very "serious" when painting commissions. Mostly, it is self imposed pressure because I want to please the person I am painting for. I have to fight being too "tight" or reverting back to a way of painting that I have tried to move away from. As I have mentioned before, it is very hard to paint freely or loose and at the same time try to incorporate the needed color theory, rules of thirds, exciting brushwork and value patterns that make a good painting. I constantly read and study painting techniques and attend workshops as often as I can. In fact, next week I will attend the Sarah Towery Art Colony at Lake Martin which I have attended for over 10 years now. I love painting with many other artists that I have known over the years and I am especially happy to be painting with a wonderful teacher, Julee Hutchison. But today I strayed - I took the advice of another artist and took an old painting and painted over it. Someone told me recently that I should paint more intuitive paintings and that is what I did. I painted a very loose vase of flowers with a lot of pushing and pulling of paint.....adding and removing until I found what I wanted. There are some places where the old painting peeks through and adds interesting detail. Rarely ever do I say, "I love this" but today I do. I couldn't love it more.
Sometimes people will ask me to replicate something I have already painted and sold. That is really impossible because paintings can be similar but there are always nuances that cannot be repeated. I know this one will never be repeated, it is one of a kind.
No comments:
Post a Comment