Don't Be Afraid To Paint All The Snowflakes

 This painting is a mixed media painting.  It has a watercolor under painting with pastel as a final treatment.

 Flexibility  in the moment is critical to good painting.  I believe that over thinking and too much concern for the outcome are limiting and does not allow a full expression.

 This painting was done for my sister in law Sue. Apparently she had sent me this picture a couple of years ago.  This was one of her favorite pictures.  While they were out visiting us with my mom I asked her to send it to me again so I could paint it.

 This is the first time I have painted from a reference photo on my phone.  It took me a while to figure out the balancing act of keeping the picture open and balancing the watercolor tray and establishing the color, composition, and values within the painting.

 Beyond the challenge of painting  from my phone was the challenge of painting an out of focus subject.  The snowflakes in this picture were stuck to the windshield and were not falling.  That was why the rest of the subject matter was out of focus.  This also was the first time I painted snow for the most part.

 The first thing to remember when dealing with new situations is to give yourself enough time.  Time has a way of removing pressure from the moment.  If you know you have all the time you need, then problem solving does not have to be pushed.  Construction priorities when followed in the proper order really help with the foundation of the painting.  Knowing you are always going to do your best without creating unrealistic expectations help you stay focused on the task at hand.  In the end every painting is an endpoint and a starting point.  The culmination of years of painting are captured in every painting  and also the starting point of some new process, thought, perspective or technique.

 Detail within the painting as with everything is about personal preference.   I love  detail.  The question of how much detail to add can be tricky  I knew I had to add the snowflakes on the wind shield because Sue mentioned how important they were to her.  The question became not if but how I was going to add the snowflakes.   They were the last thing added.  Because they are the closest thing to the viewer  they had to be the last thing I painted.  When you think of snowflakes you may think that most everything is  random.  When I was thinking about the size and placement of the snowflakes on the windshield I thought about all of the factors that resulted in their placement.  They were anything but random.  So ina quick and loose manner I copied the size and location of the snowflakes. If I just put down random snowflakes

 it probably not read as realistic.  You are a slave to the details when you are rigid.   When you remain open and flexible your choices expand.

The finished painting.

Point and Line to Plane by Wassily Kandinsky

In my efforts to understand abstract painting better, I read Wassily Kandinsky's "Point and Line to Plane".  This book was intended to break down and explain Wassily's theories, thoughts, and approach to abstract painting.
I found the book difficult to read because the thoughts within it were not supported.  Wassily seemed to take positions at odds with 
each other and did not attempt to bridge the gap between them.  He spoke about the spiritual evolution while trying to frame the measure of that work through the "science of art".
The "science of art" was described as an objective quantification that would eliminate opinion from the evaluation of art.  Wassily said that this " science of art" would require development.  His contribution would be to describe point, line and plane scientifically.  Sad to say there was no scientific theory forwarded by Wassily.
Wassily seemed to get caught up in the zeitgeist of  the world around him.  The 30's were full of scientific breakthroughs.  It seems like Wassily wanted to be the artist that made his own breakthrough by being able to take art from the subjective to the objective.  He pulls comparisons from music, language, and astronomy to help explain parallels in the scientific description of art.
Ultimately, there are no scientific processes presented to support his thoughts.  There is only his expression of the great need to develop this theory and a vast number of pen and ink drawings that are intended to diagram the conversion of things like bars of music into abstract representations.  These pseudo-scientific diagrams seem like a desperate attempt to convince us and himself that he has come up with a new science.

Finally

 For the first time in 2 years I took some time to plein air paint.  As usual, I was a little too ambitious.   The size and scope of this painting was not in my green zone.

This painting is mixed media.  It has an under painting of watercolor with a finishing  layer of soft.pastel.on sanded paper.  The painting measures  approximately 32"X 46".

Finishing Your Thought

Finishing your thoughts in art is a simple idea which some of my paintings have trouble expressing.  The expression of your ideas is central to effective communication within the painting. Competing ideas have to be eliminated.  Spontaneity balanced by a well articulated plan. Distractions must not be allowed to take center stage. Stick to the plan. Whether painting in the studio or en plain air, your attention span will be tested.  Decide what your effort is to convey. Do the thinking on the front side so you can paint without conflict later.  Have your idea be strong enough to hold your attention to the end.  Write it down and refer to it before your work begins. Your stronger paintings are most successful because you did not have conflicting ideas or messages.

18"X24" color pencil on museum board.