THE BLOG
Painting Like a Second Grader .
When I’ve presented projects for all the grades in a school, the second graders seem to be the most creative. They are not worried about rules for the project and how do you start out. They just dive in. If we can remember the second grader inside of us and go back to that age where you find joy in creating, we can turn off our left brain and create like we did when we stood by the easel and took great joy in slapping the paint on paper.
These are some of the things I thought about in the watercolor demo for my class today.
1. Pick a subject that you connect with in someway, something that sparks excitement inside.
2. Don’t listen to the thoughts that are negative.
3. Get you supplies together. Look at your scrap, photo, or sketch until you know what you are going to put down on the paper. Creation starts in your brain. Think design, value and color.
4. Get started. Don’t be frozen by fear.
5. Keep working on the painting until it’s done. Don’t give up in the middle. There are many things that are learned by finishing projects.
6. Get away from your painting and look at it later to figure out if your done or if there are a few more touches to put on.
7. Enjoy the process. Take a look at your finished painting. What do you like? What will you try to change on the next painting.
Dead Skunk on the Side of the Road
Years ago, I was riding my bike. My eye was on a new white stripe painted on the side of the road. My feet spinning, my hands on the handle bars, my eyes on the road, I followed the white stripe. Suddenly I came across a dead skunk. The person who had painted the stripe, had painted right over the dead skunk. Nothing interrupted his job. He just kept painting down the road.
The skunk lay under the line for a long time. I don’t know if the winter did him in or a hungry fox drug him off. The skunk is gone but there is a spot on the road where you can still see where the skunk lay.
It reminds me to do my best work. To go for excellence instead of speed. Sometimes you have to stop and get the skunk off the road and then paint. I try to remember this when I’m trying to get a character just right. You keep trying until your character feels right to you.
Here are some characters I’ve spent some time on.
Plein Air Painting at the Timpanogos Story Telling Festival
I plopped up my easel between two tents at the Timpanogos Story Telling Festival. Becky Hartvigsen and I had been invited to paint plein air. There I was painting in the shade of a big tree, a slight breeze blowing through. I could hear snippets of stories from both tents and watch the people as they listened and moved to the next area. One of the nice things about plein air is you get to talk to individuals.
There was the photographer who talked about filming the story tellers without being obtrusive. A woman walking by and yelling back, keep painting. I love paintings. Sharon who took time out of her busy schedule to buy us lunch. The woman who drove one of the golf carts and picked up me and Becky and all our supplies and drove us right back to the car. It would have been a long walk. While she drove she told a harrowing experience she had in March. Wow, a snippet of life shared in a golf cart ride.
I spent some time drawing some caricatures of some of the story tellers and when one walked into the tent I was in, I grabbed a copy of my painting and gave it to him and his wife.
The feelings of the day and the people that you talk to, become part of your painting.
