I Started Painting :)

Courage to us all!

This is wonderful work, Elspeth. You really do have the right stuff. Such a great natural sense of color, for one thing! And I agree with SB -- your sense of motion or rhythm in your composition is almost musical.

The thing you do with substantive sketches -- it's probably instinctive from your writing, like doing drafts, or small character or landscape thumbnails. Your personal method and sense of how to capture the essentials just crosses over -- the lady with the instinct is the artist underneath, no matter which artistic mode she's in at the moment.

This medium is a friend of your heart, I think. It seems very emotionally direct and powerful for you. I hope you work with it a lot, and share the results around as generously as you have with your written work.

Dam....

Well said, stoirmeil.

Thanks so much stoirmeil!

Now, Johnny, you mentioned in another thead you thought my painting was like seeing through the eyes of a child. Made me feel like a real ameature until you mentioned Picasso.
Serioulsy, can you expand? In Lake Conemaugh I have seen it sometimes like a kid's crayon drawing and that makes me want to rip it up.


On the other hand.... this is meant to be an idyllic painting. Because the place and the story it represents is idyllic. (I love that word, idyllic....)
There isn't a place of earth more beautiful than Pennsylvania in May. The people were rich and priviledged, there were no clouds upon the horizon, life was beautiful. In my story it was a place of sweet, hopeful, once in a lifetime young love. That is what I wanted to capture along with the historically accurate physical charcteristics.

Is that what comes across, or is ithe eyes of a child appearance a lack of technique on my part? You can be honest. Afterall this is only my sixth attempt at painting. I know there are so many places yet to go.

Hi Elspeth, remember when I sad, if you looking for a new experience don’t hire someone with a lot of it. Well that goes for your paintings as well.

It seams to me that a lot artist spend their lives trying to improve their technique. Most often by trying to make their work look more realistic, only to find themselves right back where they started, which is where you are now.

So if I were you, I wouldn’t just keep doing what you’re doing, because I think your paintings are charming, which is a characteristic that just happens. In other words it can’t be taught.

Oh by the way, I happen to think that crayon is a great medium to work in, and the real armatures are those who don’t recognize it.

So, what are you doing here, you should be painting.

Johnny

I'm listening to the music and writing. Writing a story for a contest about the year without a summer.

Actually, it was writing that brought me to Highlander radio. Five hears ago, when I was writing my second novel I needed to listen to Scottish music (it was all scottish then) I found HR and it helped me write my novel by introducing me to songs I probably would have never come across any other way.

I wonder sometimes why "eyes of a child" is equated with "lack of technique." What's childlike about it that has NOTHING to do with technique is the cleanness, the purity of the colors, and the way the vistas move and open out in that lovely rhythm we were mentioning. Like, the eyes of a child can contain huge potentials, all that stuff they socialize out of us in the name of being practical and realistic. There's a sweet kind of tentativeness too, in those tender little clouds especially and how they are arranged in the sky, that expresses just what you were saying about the image before. And those brave, sharp little pure white sails on the boats. Going right for it, whatever the trip brings. It's really very moving. Like I said, your emotional state seems to flow right out onto the canvas without much of any interference, and you're so lucky to have that!

I love this lake picture. I hope you don't tear it up. I have the feeling that as you gain technique you are going to want to look at this one again and again, to remind you not to let good technique shrink you til you're too grown up.

Rather fascinating considering my hopeless state of mind that I still a paint with the eyes of a child.... Intriguing....

No, I won't tear it up. I could never tear up what I created. Might get shoved in the attic, but never destroyed.

It's haging right above my computer. For after I finish the short story I'm doing, I've got to get working on the novel this was painted to depict.

I do want to keep it simple. I just read a writer talking about not letting the writing get in the way of the story. A well turned phrase can ruin a story by drawing attention to itself and away from whole of the work. Bet the same can be true in painting. Or any art form.

Do a google search for Jane Orleman. She is a friend of mine who survived a truly horrendous childhood of physical and sexual abuse and paints as therapy to work through it. I used to strech her canvas and frame her paintings. After all the years she has been doing it her technique hasn't changed much, but she does sell some and it has helped her. So keep on painting and don't get discouraged! And I like your lake painting.

I looked her up. Soul Journey - quite powerful.

Thanks for the reference, Dogshirt. There's some very strong material there. And I think you're right -- the point is not technique at all, it's what she brings together in relation in all those composite images of herself, over and over again. And of course, she could have just done that hard work to save herself, and that would have been fine. But it's out there for others to make use of in their work. It's very brave and generous.

Excellent!

Finished the painting of my grandma's country kitchen.

Attached Image. (Click thumbnail to expand)

I like it remind me of early Amercia style of pianting.

I LIKE it, your style reminds VERY much of Jane's. Not the subject matter, Jane is VERY dark, but the style is very much the same. Keep up the good work!

Your paintings and drawings are great. Don't feel bad or get upset when people tell you paint with the eyes of a child. It is a very great complement. Your pictures are simple but bright and full of life and sunshine. You see life as a child does with great beauty and wonderment. We are told by the Lord to be as a little child. We are told that a little child shall lead them. Children are full of wonder and light, they are full of love and music. Many a great artist cannot see with the eyes of a child. You can and do. You see light and beauty, and such bright colors. Stand proud when someone tells you you paint with the eyes of a child because it is a great thing that few can do and a very great gift.
I wish I could paint and draw like you. Maybe someday.
RebeccaAnn