Recently I wrote how friends and I had been to see the Wyeth exhibit at a local museum. I so so so love the Wyeth family and their legacy in American art, so it was a huge boon for me to go to look at paintings during my month of intensive painting.
Artists know that during the course of making a painting we have conversations with ourselves about infinite painting subjects. Since I've been having such thriving creative life as of late, those conversations have intensified.
In art school the professors used to tell me to "go to the museum" when I'd ask a specific question about how I might do something in a painting. While I may argue that their line was a cop out, I would love the opportunity to skip my studio class (although I was still in an artist mindset) and try to discover the answer to my specific questions in time for my next studio class.
For those reading this who aren't painters, my questions were about the techniques of painting specific things. Often I had issues with transitions in paintings. During this month of daily painting, three questions keep coming up: How does one transition from light to shadow? How can an artist make a large color field interesting? What sort of color harmonies make the most captivating paintings?
My first go-'round during the Wyeth show was to get an overall sense of the work on exhibit. After this I went on a hunt for answers to my three questions. I learned a ton and have been trying to implement some of my new artistic awareness. I did say trying.
It was during my second viewing that I came upon my friends viewing an NC Wyeth landscape. They struck me as being fantastic painting subjects themselves. I'm pretty sure they didn't expect that they'd be a subject of one of my #30in30. I do hope they'll recognize themselves. Tim did!
We're getting to the end of the month. Geez! It's been fun.
Thanks for reading! -kmw
