The Norwegian Artist and I walk 3-5 miles every day, broken up in two or three
sessions. It gets the dog out, me off the chair in front of the computer, and
the Norwegian from behind his oil painting easel. During the break, we propound
to one another correct solutions to national, international, and domestic
problems.
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There's no one quite like you in this whole entire
world.
Celebrate that as you learn how to oil paint.
Mesa
Walk
by Steve Henderson of Steve Henderson Fine Art.
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Unless it's raining. At that point, I stay in,
regardless of the Norwegian's exasperated sigh or the dog's pleading look.
It's not so much that I'm inordinately difficult as that
I wear glasses, and I really, really hate droplets spattered all over the
lenses because then my whole world looks blotchy. While I subconsciously
realized this, it took me years before I thought to communicate my reasons to
the Norwegian, who, now that he wears reading glasses and understands the
irritation of fingerprints or dust on the lenses, nodded and said, "I can
see that. Why don't you wear a hat?"
Well, at least we achieved partial understanding.
The Norwegian is content to accept that this is the way I am, and on rainy days
he and the dog share special time together.
What about you? Do you do something a certain way
because of something unique about you?
Do you find it more comfortable to sit when you are
oil painting, but everybody you know says that you should stand while putting
oil on canvas? Or do you stand closer to your easel than many people do because
that's how your eyes focus best? How about light? Maybe you prefer it coming
from one side or another or even behind you -- possibly because you wear
glasses and they catch a reflection. Or maybe you paint very very quickly, and
other artists say that you should slow down.
Before you hang your head and mumble that everyone
else is probably right, and you're wrong, as usual, think about me and my
glasses. You may have an excellent reason for doing what you do and how you do
it and that reason is intimately tied in with something distinctive about you.
Take some time and think it through -- not so that you have to answer the
people critiquing you, but so that you can answer yourself about what is right
for your oil painting art. It'll be the best painting lesson you give yourself.
--Carolyn