Learning to slow down

This week I am not going to class. With all the Color Value and Temperatures going through my system right now, it is a good opportunity to just digest instead of actively engaging in a class situation.

I don’t believe I have addressed a theme that keeps reoccurring; My “Waterloo” painting and how bad I must feel about wasting so much time on it. “Time” seems to be a measurable in today’s world that I believe is misinterpreted. First of all, I learned so much and I am not finished so painting time is never wasted time. Secondly, if a painting isn’t done well, time is not a factor. A great painting can take minutes (ie Sargent’s painting of Vernon Lee done in @ 30 minutes), hours, days or months; as can a painting that shouldn’t see the light of day. Because I work a “day” job, my painting time is more limited than many of my painter friends and I do attempt to make the most of it. But if I stress about how little “time” I have, I tend to waste more of it. If I look at it as continuing on my journey to being the best I can be, time is not a factor. Today’s world culture tries to make us fearful in all aspects of our lives and time is just one of them. Taking a break from being “driven” by time and doing these color charts, has really shown me more than I would have believed possible.

Mark’s class has a number of artist’s who have been studying with him for years. This is my second time. It dawned on me that I was resisting what he was telling us we should do to become better painters. Most all of us have great graphic abilities but we lack what Mark has and we hope will rub off on us through osmosis; His sense of color and value; Kevin calls Mark the “Color god” and vice versa. Now it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that if Mark is giving us the tools to understand that which we lack, and we refuse to use those tools, then we will never get the knowledge to apply it to our own work. He kept repeating to me the importance of color charts, so I am making my color charts; He keeps repeating the importance of knowing your subject, so I am now taking that to heart as well. And harping on "value relationship" is something both Kevin and Mark repeat like a broken record. If we keep doing what we are used to doing and expecting a different result, that is the definition of insanity, correct? I am tired of the insanity, so I am trying a new tact.