Past and Future

I've really been bit by the painter's bug (if there is such a thing). I find it odd that I made a couple of paintings in the past, but never with this sort of vigor. Why now? Who knows, but I'm not going to fight it. I'm going to run with it.

I've been reading a bit of art history lately. I'm very interested in the Impressionist movement (see the picture from Monet below that spawned the term Impressionism, originally a term to scourn the work of these artists).

How odd that their work, at the time, was so ill-received, as they were challenging current notions of art. How dare they use bright colors, visible brush strokes, and natural themes instead of the time-honored methods of painting religious and historical figures with dark serious colors and invisible brush strokes!

I would like to experiment more with loosening up my brush strokes and focusing on light and color. It goes against my nature of trying to make everything photo-realist, so I think it would be good for me.

I've been seeing amazing examples of paintings that were all done with palette/painting knives and I so want to try my hand at it! I went out to Blick art supplies last night and bought a few knives to work with. There are so many different shapes and sizes, it was hard to choose!

I just feel like I don't have enough time to paint! It's been 4 days since I sat in front of the canvas, which may not sound like much, but I would love to dabble in the paints a little bit every day. The problem is, since most of my paintings are done in one sitting, I need to dedicate a fairly big block of time to make one. This is tough to do on a weeknight.

But, I do have a couple of things in the works, even if they are just in the planning stage! In the next week or so, I will be finishing a painting of Hawaii, experimenting with painting knives, and working with another episode or two from the Joy of Painting with Bob Ross. Come back soon!