Day 57: Spring in the Garden
It hit me all of a sudden today that spring has arrived. Even though it’s raining and the sky is gloomy, the peach trees are in bloom. With the on again off again rain today I had to jump in and paint at what I thought was the most opportune moment. It of course began to rain after awhile and at a certain point I couldn’t mix the paint anymore because the droplets of water made the paint all sticky! Today I had a new painting experience. Because of the rain I made a choice to simplify the composition and just put what I thought were the most interesting elements in the painting. It rendered the painting a little dreamy and even though I’m always editing when painting, I did so to a degree that I haven’t done before. I’m actually pretty excited about this, it’s a first step for me towards the more creative/interpretive (or maybe artistic) side of painting. Although every painting is an interpretation and arrangement, mine have always been as close to what I see as I am able to execute. For some reason I haven’t allowed myself the liberty to arrange in a more free or “artistic” way. I never did this before mostly for lack of experience, thinking I wouldn’t know how to arrange a composition differently left entirely up to me.What I realized today is that the choices I make in the palette, the composition and how to bring it all together are just as much part of the painting as painting from observation. I mean an artist needs nature to observe and then is free to arrange and interpret, that’s the whole beauty of art!I was really thinking about this this afernoon when a friend jokingly said to me, “Why don’t you just take a picture? You would be done working a lot sooner and have more free time to hang out with your friends!”Obviously most of the work in my painting will still be in the know-how aspect, but I like and am excited by the development of the technical skill together alongside the artistic imaginative part and how to make them work together. I think that this is what we call art.To view or buy today’s painting from my website, click here. To view all other paintings from the 100 day project, click here.All paintings from the 100 day project measure 6×8″, are painted on birch, cost $100 (+ $15 shipping) and are unframed.You can share this project with someone by reccomending they subscribe to receive the daily E Newsletter here or they can follow on the Blog here or join the 100 Paintings Facebook Group hereThank you for your support, all of your emails and great comments, I love hearing from you. You can contact me directly anytime at kellyaskey@gmail.com