Now I've Got IT!

Bristol Paper 14x17" Acrylic

I am delighted to announce that I have satisfied myself. This IS the look I wanted!!!

It turned out to be easier than I thought. DUH. Just make a loose sketch, paint on some allover color and then block out the areas of the background so the figure is visible. Then paint some large chunks to define areas of color and quit before adding anything that 'fixes' the lines or shapes.

I had to ask myself what I was doing wrong and tried think of it as like homework. What could I do different? So I looked again at Skip’s painting and really studied the look and analyzed the design aspects and saw that I was thinking too literally. I was stuck on subject matter which is what my painting teacher always said to me and yet never explained.

I have to see the figure as merely shapes and not a person and then I can use the figure as a base for my DESIGN which is what I want to be painting. Not pictures but DESIGNS.
I knew there was a link between my quilting and painting but therein lies the mystery.

Now the mystery is solved. BOTH ARE ABOUT COLOR, LINE AND SHAPE. Not a picture but a design.

Notice how the hands read as hands and yet are not delineated into painted fingers. You can see the pencil lines, which, funnily, I added later.

Note the lack of facial features that I would normally have included.

I am dancing on the ceiling.

This has been a big week for little ol' me. In addition to getting back to painting, I discovered that I have been hired to teach a week at the very same art center that my fave painters are teaching at! Only I am teaching in 2006 and they are teaching this year. Perhaps they will all be back next year and I can meet them.

The site is the Hudson River Valley Art Workshops and usually they do painting workshops but are going to start doing quilters next year. Isn't that way neat?