On challenges and learning

Now

 

Before

So far in painting, as well as in some other areas of my life, I’ve just done things as I see fit at that moment, without giving it much thought. I guess one can say I tend to be somewhat impulsive.

Well, this past week’s art class really challenged me on that score.

I shared with you under “Works in Progress” how I decided to make the background blue. What I didn’t share there was that I decided to go with a plain background with no detail – my thinking was that I didn’t want my background to steal the thunder of my subject (once again, like the orangey colour I had had in the background before).

But when I got to art class, my teacher started asking questions about why I had done things a certain way, and about what my thinking process was behind what I had done. I realised that I had actually done more thinking than I thought I had.

She helped me see that my flat, single colour background gave no context to my subject. It doesn’t help explain where the highlights come from, and why my shadows are so deep. (I had seen other people do it, and thought “why the heck not?” – not much philosophising went into that, right?)

The next question was about my background colour. She explained to me the different moods that different colours portray. My blue background put it into the “Mystery” spectrum. That was fine by me, and this is why: What I see in the micro-expressions in this little girl’s face is a question, and bit of doubt (Am I pretty enough? I don’t think so.). And it puts a question to the viewer: Do you value yourself according to what you see in the mirror?

To sum up, I can say that I was challenged this week to look a bit deeper into what I paint, and how I go about it.  I need to ask myself more questions about the particular picture I have in mind, as well as the colours I’m going to use to get my message across. Whereas before I just painted a picture because it “spoke” to me, now I need to start thinking about the fact that it also speaks to others, and make sure that I make it say what I want it to.