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| 'Under a Spell' 5x7 oil on panel ©Karen Margulis available $75 |
Paint what you know and love if you want your paintings to speak.
Your voice is an important part of the process. Using reference material from someone else is like trying to use their voice. It's possible to make a good painting from it but it will most likely be missing the special quality that is your voice. And it is much more challenging to interpret someone else's material and make it your own. Even when you use your own photos you need to make sure to choose something that you know well. (and has good bones for a painting which is another post!)
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| close-up detail |
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| 'Under a Spell 2' 5x7 pastel $75 |
Choosing subjects that I know and have painted before allows me to concentrate on other things such as the handling of a brush and mixing paint! So today I selected some poppy images that I have painted before. I had already worked out design, values and colors. It made the painting process easier and more fun. And I had a better chance of having a successful painting.
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| My box of wildflower photos and sketches |
5 comments:
I'm learning so much. Thank you! Karen, how do you get the - I guess I'll call it variegated - look on the petals in the oil painting. It looks almost like you combed through the wet paint. Double load your brush? Dry brush over the top? It looks so cool.
I think you're saying, make it one experiment at a time. New paper, new subject, new materials, control everything else by turning to what's familiar and practiced. Makes sense to me.
I have more practice with others' photos than my own due to my circumstances. Usually housebound, I got used to painting places I'd never get to go in life. I belong to an art community with photo sharing. Friends worldwide share their photos and holiday photos. I'd never be able to afford those trips as trips and sometimes couldn't physically manage the climb or climate, so I got used to working with others. What's interesting is that it also got me in the habit of altering the photos dramatically, cropping and simplifying, not just going with what's in the photo.
Of course I'm also specifically working toward being able to paint from imagination too and when I do that I'm going for "visual fiction" rather than just a durable copy of the photo.
Thanks Elizabeth, I didn't do anything special. I just built up the layers with different shades of red. I think it was the slick surface that gives the look of texture for some reason!
Thanks for the comments Rob. I always enjoy your insight!!
Poppies are my favourite flowers too, I love them :)Krista
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