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| 'In My Nantucket Dreams' 8x10 pastel ©Karen Margulis sold |
Paint What You Love. You have heard it before. It is great advice. When you paint the things you are passionate about you will usually do your best work. Sometimes we paint something because it seems easy or it is what the class is working on. Sometimes we choose a subject because we want to learn from it. We do need to take time occasionally to stray from our true love.
I believe it is OK to stray. Trying another subject will stretch us. We can learn from it. But it can also lead to frustration. If our hearts aren't in the subject it often shows in our paintings. We are missing that spark...that illusive thing that happens when we are truly excited and moved by the subject. We may not have the same success that you have with our true love. We just have to remember that we need to visit home every once in awhile.
Landscapes are my passion....my true love. I happen to be drawn to many kinds of landscapes but most of them have something to do with wide open spaces....deserts, beaches and marshes and meadows. I am happiest when I can see the sky! Knowing what ignites the fire helps me paint better. I can learn from painting other subjects but I won't allow myself to get frustrated when I don't have success with them. I learn what I can and then come back to painting what I am truly passionate about.
What is your passion? Not sure? I will have more on this topic in a future post.
4 comments:
It is indeed very obvious that you paint what you love. That magic shows in every painting.
Good advise Karen...especially since i've just taken a painting off the easel and feel like it just didn't work.....probably has more to do with me trying to paint in 'someone' else's style....that's the other pitfall!
i love this painting, it shows clearly that you are in love with what you saw! thanks again, Linda
In the same vein,studying other type's of paintings..Still life, portrait,etc...yes i would rather paint and read about ,look at other landscapes. but i learn so much from the other type's..so many artists say when they try the unfamiliar,they stretch themselves and learn something...
Love what you paint Karen! ha ha I am not a pastel artist, though it is something I have dabbled in here and there. Your posts are so intriguing, and I find myself lost in each piece trying to decipher what I can. I fell like I am learning so much from you, even if I have not picked up a pastel.
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