What is Painting From Within?

'The Marsh Spirit'           13x20           pastel          ©Karen Margulis
available $195     

It is all in there. If we really know and love a place it is all within us. We can recall it when needed. That is why I love painting from bad photos. It allows me to ignore the photo and paint what is inside my head and heart.  I recently read a quote from Degas that inspired my studio class today.

"It is very good to copy what one sees; it is much better to draw what you can't see any more but is in your memory. It is a transformation in which imagination and memory work together. You only reproduce what struck you, that is to say the necessary." Edgar Degas

In that spirit I decided it would be a good exercise to paint without reference photos today. Instead of going cold turkey we were allowed to choose a photo of a place we loved and do a thumbnail sketch. We could use the thumbnail to start the painting....but no photo at any time. This would force us to paint from our memory of the place. Some call this painting from memory or from imagination. I like to call it Painting from Within because I use information that is in my mind and in my heart.

The demo painting half done. I needed different pastels for my vision

TRY THIS: Trust that you have a lot of great information within. Try to paint without relying on a photo. Set a timer for 30 minutes. You can use the reference photo for the first 15 minutes. Put the photo away for the last 15 minutes.

I will share tips for painting from within in another blog post. Stay tuned!