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| "A Mild Winter" (in progress) (approximately) 8" x 10" |
Ok . . . is anyone else completely all over the place, attention-wise, that is? I mean, I paint a few quiet still lifes, then an interior maybe, a floral next of course . . . then follow that up with an off-the-wall "Fisher Price" painting, then how about a landscape?! What's up with that? At least I guess, I'm sticking with the watercolor; I used to jump around from medium to medium! Although after that last art demonstration I attended (which I still need to blog about; I promise you I haven't forgotten) I left thinking "hmmmm . . . huge, slightly abstracted floral still lifes in acrylic . . . now that would be very exciting!" What kind of crazy artist am I? Is there a clinical name to what I have? Can you find it in the DSM IV?
Anyway . . . here's my latest WIP . . . it's moving along but definitely needs more work. I'm not very good at landscapes -- I have a really hard time editing. My neurotic nature lends itself well to the close up still life, especially when patterns or patinas are involved. Not that they always work out, but I'm just crazy enough to get all excited trying! So when there are individual blades of grass to tackle and millions of branches to deal with, my mind gets all nutty -- like it's having a fight with itself -- how much do I actually attempt to paint? I like detail, but COME ON . . . I know I'm crazy, but not THAT crazy. What techniques and colors should I use just to create the illusion of woods in the distance? So many decisions to make. I like landscapes, so hopefully I will get better at editing and will learn how to use the watercolor to my advantage. That way, I won't have to spend 700 hours painting every blade of grass . . . and will have plenty of time to move onto the next genre. :)
Happy Painting!
That makes two of us -- I am myself suffering (enjoying?) artistic ADHD as well, and always have 10 or so projects going on in the same time! Fuuny that i started missing painting landscape myself this week as well, and just started a simple one today... Just like you, i have an attendrncy of zeroing in on the details, and i'm struggling to "suggest" instead of "paint" things such as bush or grass. Tony Couch said in his workshop that all painters are shape makers, symbol collectors and ebtertainers -- so, i am just trying my best to not paint a tree, but my symbol of a tree that makes a pleasent amd entertaining shape on paper! (Geez, that is easy said thsm done...)
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments Arena . . . I like what Tony Couch said -- great way to approach the painting! Good luck with your paintings.
DeleteI'm glad when you paint landscapes, I love your's! If you find out what you are suffering from, please don't take the prescription!
ReplyDeleteHa! Thank you! :)
DeleteI loved this post! Trying to simplify a landscape is really difficult, I think. I like the mistiness of the trees behind the fence. I hope you leave that.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Virginia. I happen to like that too and my plan is not to disrupt the trees. I hope I can stick to that! :)
DeleteYour landscape is beautiful Kara! I love the subtle colors you use. And I like to skip around and try new things too, but I have a hard time painting details in big scenes like landscapes, I just can't do it! I find myself getting very loose whenever I have to paint grassy fields and not every single blade.
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