Touch of Pinkish-Red

Why did the artist cross the road? So he wouldn't have to put that caution sign in his painting.

Some artists are so locked into painting from a photo they cannot deviate one tiny bit from what’s in the photo. They get in just the perfect spot to take their photo from. That yellow caution sign might just be what is really needed to bring interest to their painting though. A friend put a railroad crossing sign in her painting and I swear the light in the center of that crossing sign was blinking red. That tiny touch of pinkish red made that painting. Turns out there was no railroad sign in that landscape. The artist just felt that the summer landscape in her mind needed that touch of pinkish red. That's what an artist does, they take the ordinary and make it special.

Twenty years since I saw that painting and I remember it like I had just seen it yesterday. A good artist does that, they make you look and think about things. I tried to picture a train winding it's way through the country side and a car full of excited kids counting the passing train cars and telling Aunt Anita about all the different kinds of train cars they counted. Kathy Wilson Smith took me back to the trains and visits to my aunt and uncle for a moment as I stood in front of her watercolor. 

How we artists use our photos is so important. Some cross the road to get the ideal shot of the landscape before us, others see that landscape with the yellow caution sign as a better way to stir peoples minds. The artist inside builds upon that scene and thinks about possibilities. They take to the studio the photos they took and dream about the paintings they may get from those photos. Maybe the caution sign turns from a deer crossing sign, then to a warning of an ‘S’ curve? Maybe the photo of the cow standing with his head behind a tree needs to have the cow in front of the tree? 

Photos can be of great use to an artist or they can stifle ones creativity. 

Sunshine Painter

Overcast days turn me inward searching for something to raise my spirits. I'm a sunshine painter. Bright sunny days or violent stormy days get my juices flowing. Overcast grey days do it for many artists, and I love seeing their work, but for me I love standing in a field taking in the sun while watching big white clouds drift over head listening to the breeze swaying the rag weed around me. Fluttering monarch butterflies searching for milkweed, lumbering bumble bees gathering pollen, puffy-cheeked mice taking seeds home storing them for the winter. These little observations fill my head as I lift my brush and begin a landscape to bring sunshine to my studio.

Studio work is about creating a moment and an understanding of life. Studio work is about sharing one's life's experience, for me. One day it may be a walk through a field of flowers from long ago, or sharing the sight of a model catching the afternoon light streaming into my studio. 

Today it is the wild flowers I experienced years ago with a couple who were returning their farm to the virgin prairie it use to be. Photos I took with them aid me as I create a landscape that is totally my own. I choose my colors carefully to convey the richness of my memory of that day with them. Others who I've met over the years while walking the land have shared their love for the it through stories they've told, coloring the canvas with me.

I sit in the studio alone but I paint with those I've met over the years. I hear the voices of people who love the land with every brush load of color. My hand speaks for them as I lay the paint on the white canvas. Name of wild flowers escape me but the stories that accompany them come to mind. Painting the landscape is more than creating a picture. There is more to any painting than simple picture making. Pouring oneself into a painting is what makes that painting a work of art. Personal feelings and experiences must go along with knowledge of composition and design, and  a sense of color.

The grey day is full of color now with a fresh painting on the easel.