Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Don’t Think It…Just Do It

In my recent three-day Scottsdale Artist’s School workshop “Still Life From Start to Finish” with Susan Diehl, I became the still life. Then my brushes played dead. I toyed with brush burial ideas (a fireplace match box?) along with my aspirations of becoming a painter. But I returned the second day to be with the fun friends I’d made and enjoy the excellent instructor.

I searched for quotes to inspire me for that second day but the best and simplest was Nike’s “Just Do It.” So I threw out all my expectations for a masterpiece and just had fun smearing paint. With the pressure off some of the lessons “osmosed” in and by the third and final day I felt I could achieve any painting goal I set for myself. Amazing turn around!

Painting is not like riding a bicycle. Mastery is a mindset, requires I paint acres and acres of canvas and going in I know I will never know everything…. fortunately. And on this note I did find a quote, “Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.” Edgar Degas.

-Cathy

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