As you know, it is - or should be - a goal of the creative individual to continue learning, regardless of age or skill.
What I’ve learned this week:
1. If you walk into your workspace wearing clean clothes, you
will most certainly get paint on them whether you touch anything or not. This is especially true if you are wearing expensive, or new clothes.
2. It is possible to hold 7 brushes, 2 palette knives, a wad of paper
towels, and hang a little mirror off my thumb with one hand, while simultaneously clenching 2 brushes
in my teeth, while actually painting with the other hand – standing on one foot and singing
the national anthem. (Only kidding about that last one.) I’m not saying this something
to which one should aspire, only that I happened to notice myself in this situation.
3. This week I learned that if you get a molecule of Prussian blue on your right elbow,
it will migrate to your left palm, slide up to your ear and perch lightly on
the end of your nose. This small but mighty molecule will rest unseen until you
are out in public, whereupon it will leap into action, leaving a trail across your
cheeks and down your chin. Furthermore, if you are at Walmart, you will fit right in.
4. Tossing paint laden paper towels into the trash will ensure that Handsome Husband will stick his hand deep down into the trash to compact the load before taking it outside for the garbage hauler. 4a. HH has a newly discovered ability to speak in tonques.
5. Brushes are not fully broken in until they are nearly
broken. Then and only then will they give you the kind of mark you need.
6. The best way to understand weaknesses in a painting is to
send it in an email to someone. The
multitude of errors you made will reveal themselves instantly as soon as you
poke the ‘send’ button.
7. You don’t need a fancy-pants arrangement for photographing your images. A cloudy day on the patio will do just fine.
7a. Birds are attracted to fine art on the patio.
7b.The finer the art, the bigger the bird.
7c. Gusts of wind created by flocks of birds which are attracted to fine art on your patio will often blow your fine art off the easel that was just pooped on by the aforementioned flock of birds.
7d or 8. I learned that during construction of our patio an errant piece of lumber was left underneath. In just the right spot.
9. The better grasp you have on your concept, the more smoothly your concept will be realized.
10. The more expensive the canvas, the more tenuous the grasp you have on your concept.
copyright 2012 Patricia Scarborough 30 x 40 oil on expensive canvas
Version 12. Or maybe 13.
Side note related to Numbers 6, 9 and 10; I see one more teeny tiny thing to correct...
I know lots of other stuff, but I don’t want to overwhelm
you. Take notes, and someday I’ll share a few more nuggets of artistic elucidation to help you in your artistic journey.
Until then, keep creating.
