Long summer days afford the opportunity to take long evening strolls and hikes. I’m so blessed to live in a area that has such beauty and diversity of landscape. What more could a painter ask for really?
The old adage, beauty is in the eye of the beholder is also apt. Walking with friends who aren’t necessarily artists, gives me reason to think about what it is that attracts each of us. What forms do we each prefer. What holds our attention and makes us swoon? It’s different for all of us. Could we really agree on what is beauty? What is it really? Most of our culture is focused on the superficial aspects of “beauty”; our bodies, our hair, our shapes.
There is a prevalent trend in art, that if your art is beautiful, it’s not “real” art and could only be superficial, not profound or conceptual. So, there is a lot of mean, ugly stuff out there, that paradoxically becomes superficial in spite of itself as it tries not to be beautiful!
I don’t worry about any of this on any given painting day! I just paint what moves me and call it good. I figure that there are a whole lot nastier ways to make a living and I know that my work has a profundity in it’s own way. I know that the places I paint have meaning and a richness that I hope carries through to the work and has impact. Besides, I like beauty!
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| Mollala State Park |
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| Mollala State Park |
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| Mollala State Park |
I continue to explore small works and did these four on terracotta colorifx paper with a wide variety of brands of soft pastel.These are each 4″x6″. These pieces are available on Daily Paintworks for $75.00 each.
I hope you are enjoying summer and getting in lots and lots of painting! Don’t forget to visit my new site, LandscapePaintingLessons.com and subscribe to my weekly mini-lessons. The next lesson is on simplifying your photo reference!
