Attending Shows and Inner Confidence

     I just returned from THE AMERICAN IMPRESSIONISTS SOCIETY SHOW in Carmel , It always remind me of how grateful I can be to meet so many nice people , artists are a great group and willing to share. It is also an honor to hang with so many great artists and to learn so much from observing the art.
     Visiting the museums of the deceased artists is also huge learning experience. We are fortunate to live in such a time.

     I have been wisely told to paint for myself and the way I want it to look. THIS IS A MUST, than no one can take that away from you, and thus you do not ride an emotional roller coaster of compliments or lack thereof. If you feel good about your piece (which is not always the case, especially if you rushed it out of the studio,) than alls well with your interior satisfaction.  Art is so subjective and it is best your inner confidence should not be based on outside affirmations.
   

SIMPLICITY, SIMPLICITY, SIMPLICITY

 It cant be said enough, recently while plein air painting I was trying to capture atmosphere, in values and colors, with a beautiful sky,once I thought it was working I turned my attention to beautiful water and rocks up front, I than proceeded to add all this to the bottom two inches of the painting. Later a friend looked at the painting and said what if you eliminate the rocks and frontal water? (Remember this was my second thought to add all this) What a difference in the quality of the painting when I cut the two inches from the bottom. I now had one concept I had originally tried to capture. I am including this little painting with the little buildings and big sky. Imagine how complicated it was with a lot of rocks and churning water up front.

   Look at all your paintings and see if you can crop parts out. I am including another painting with a big sky. These paintings are about the skies. I am also including a plein air marsh painting in which I think I got the ground plain simplified. Ask the question can any part be eliminated first not what can be added?
   In the next few blogs we will look at a plein air workshop in Dahlonega, and my demo for the American Society of Marine Artists at their annual meeting in Savannah. Simplify.