Painting in Heisler with Saim

 

I found myself itching to paint.  I was here to learn from the founder of the LAPAPA.  Saim had a very laid back style.  I was waiting for the most important advice on plein air painting I could get; but it wasn't coming.  That was not where he was at that day.  He had been an art teacher for so many years.  He had just flown in from Hawaii and was flying to Paris the next morning to paint in Provence with some friends.  I think he just wanted to paint.  I am pretty sure he was tired and looking to relax.  At one point in his demonstration he said to me "Are you going to start your painting?"  As usual, I had the biggest surface by far.  Some of the other attendees had already started and my parking meter was literally running.  I only brought enough quarters for three hours and there was no where to get more with out packing up all of my stuff-and that wasn't going to happen.  The year before I was going to a paint out with Saim and he cancelled at the last minute.

 

 

 

I normally would not have picked this view.  It is not as dramatic as many others available at this amazing park.  In fact this may be the richest place I have been for subject matter.  It seems there is one amazing view after another.  From our vantage point there were countless possibilities.  The beauty of art and the artist is the perspective and choices that are made.  Most would choose the obvious, the cliché.  Each artist sees things differently.  It is a small thing and yet it is the biggest thing at the same time-if that is possible.  Some would say that every painting done at Heisler is a cliché because it has been done an uncountable amount of times.  I would say that what is in the heart of the creator of the painting while he/she is painting determines whether it is a cliché.

 

 

I was hesitant with this composition because the palm trees were chopping up the painting in such a way that my center of focus was confused.  I had to move so that the palm's were in between the land and the rock in the ocean.  This was a compromise because I had wanted to really connect the rock with the land through the motion of the ocean.  When Saim came over for a quick look I asked his opinion.  It was interesting that he did not give it until he was asked.  This is a level of respect that I admire.  It had nothing to do with the quality of my painting or the lack of quality; it was just how he was as an artist.  He said I had too many diagonal lines running off the surface on the right and that I should bring up the lower right hand corner of the foreground.  He also suggested having the water cut into the foreground to break up that diagonal.