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| Through the Passage 12x16 Oil Larger Image Here |
I want to share with you the paintings I made during the workshop with Albert Handell at his studio in Santa Fe. Over our four days together, I managed just three 12x16s. I spent longer on them than I ever would have on my own—making small strokes, reconsidering those strokes, incorporating them into new strokes. Although I started each painting with a general concept and some vision of where I wanted it to go, Albert gave us this advice:
Don't think of finishing a painting; just think of making it better.
Finishing implies a terminus, a predetermined point when the brush gets laid down. Working toward any envisioned finish, however, can exert uncomfortable pressure. You just want to get the job done, and you want it to be perfect. Sometimes, these are incompatible—or unreachable—goals. Rushing headlong to a finish has ruined many a painting.
“Making it better,” on the other hand, is a philosophy that doesn't depend on time or perfection. Instead, it depends on looking, on analyzing or feeling, and on then responding. It takes as long as it takes. And if whatever you do continues to improve the painting, then you aren't finished. It may take ten hours or a hundred hours, a hundred brush strokes or ten thousand brush strokes—there's no saying until you reach the point where you can't “make it better.”
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| On the Edge 12x16 Oil Larger Image Here |
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| Spring Snow 12x16 Oil Larger Image Here |
