Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Nothing Sacred with Paint...

Had some frustrations with paint students today,
afraid to make starts. As though the paint would
bite them.

At one point...I took a students paint palette, and
while they whined as though totally helpless, I
dipped my hand into gobs of paint, smeered up
some working value and color and in two minutes
blocked in the start of what could potentially be
a good landscape painting for them.

Realizing I was reluctant to push paint around
to figure this motion thing out, and was beginning
to act as though this painting became something
valuable, I wiped it out...and started again.

My students were aghast...but I wanted them to
understand that if learning happens, if growing
happens...then time and paint is not wasted.

No pain(t)....no gain...

so, here's where its at now. I may well wipe this
off too, perhaps try different ducks, different
angles...maybe more grouse.


















I think what I'll plan on doing this spring is spend some
time at a wildife sanctuary I am familiar with. Thousands
of ducks and geese at very close quarters, and I'll take a
good number of photos setting the aperture and shutter
speeds slow, getting wings and more gesture. That should
help me gain some better and more complete
understanding.

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