m. p i l g r i m (art)

I have to say it's exciting learning that you're wrong, especially when 'wrong' refers to completely skipping over something because you might not enjoy it.  For me, that's like oil painting.  After listening to me kvetch about how I never have time to attend classes, and knowing that I want to be a landscape artist, husband found one to mentor me.  Technically speaking, he's actually teaching me since I've never had a class in beginning painting.   And.  he's an  oil painter. I had, early on, discounted the idea of oil painting, assuming that it was 1) messy, 2) would trigger huge asthma attacks, 3) was messy, and 4) I can't paint wet-on-wet.   I'm amazed to find that it's not smelly, especially since there's something called "odorless paint thinner," and since I wear gloves and a smock, it's not messy at all.  In face, it's easier to clean up because it doesn't dry in 30 seconds, like acrylics, ruinin...

Art school is so very different from taking community art classes. Community art:   Hi, I'm your teacher, and I want you to come up here and watch me do this thing or technique....Now, here's a list of art supplies.  Don't spend too much, just go to Hobby Lobby or Michael's and get whatever is on sale.  Get student paints, like the ones Liquitex makes.  They're cheapest. Oh, and bring in some photos of what you'd like to paint!  What's that? How many? Oh gosh, that's up to you.  How many paintings do you want to do in our six weeks together? We're going to have such  fun!! Art School:   Hi, I'm your art instructor.  Now watch what I do, and this is how you should do it too.  I'm not saying you have to do it this way...just saying that if your art instructor says to do it, then do it.  Also, here's a list of supplies you'll need DO NOT LET ME SEE A SINGLE TUBE OF LIQUITEX BASICS IN THIS ROOM you need to get qual...

final painting: mornings without you. i think the most important lesson I've learned so far in the past 12 months is that sometimes art, in its process, looks really, really, really crappy.  shitty even.  until it doesn't.  until that happens, i tolerate the awful until it become unbearable. then i close up my paints, clean out my brushes, and walk away for a while. it  always  looks horrible close up  during .  i finally know why paint brushes can come in such long lengths - so you can back up as far as possible from a painting which, for me, looks really, just, well,  awful  close up. case and point: the current work.  a friend send me a link to a fundraiser to end homelessness.  a local nonprofit invites local artists to submit works to be auctioned off.  "we respectfully ask that the work be worth at least $25" the theme is to be, what makes home  home?   i had just recently been moved one morning to...