Art Quote of the Day...Creating Mystery in Your Paintings

'Morning Mystery'         13x18       pastel         ©Karen Margulis
sold

I don't remember where I came across this quote. Sadly I don't even know the author but it is one that often comes to my rescue. It helps me remain true to my desire to paint with more expression....to paint what I feel rather than render every detail as they exist in my reference.

" The human mind delights in soft mystery"   unknown

It really is amazing how we are able to piece together bits and pieces and make them into a whole. We really don't require much information to fill in the blanks. We prefer it that way. It allows us to participate in a painting. If we see a few blades of grass rendered in detail surrounded by larger blocks of grass color we can assume that the entire area is the same type of grass. We don't need every blade of grass to make this assumption.

close up of the trees and moss

Soft Mystery....keeping this thought in mind as I paint reminds me to decide where I will put clarity and detail and where I can just suggest it.  Take the spanish moss in the trees of today's painting. The trees are in the distance so I don't want to paint the moss with detail and hard edges. I want to simply suggest a FEELING of moss in the trees. A gentle brush of lavender pastel is all that is needed. Soft mystery to suggest moss.

Painting notes: This is a commission painting on brown Canson Mi-Teintes paper. I love to paint landscape commissions and have a few openings on my schedule for holiday commissions. Contact me for details! karenmargulis@gmail.com