Thursday, September 20, 2012

about watercolor painting

When I got my first digital camera I was thrilled. In fact, I am still thrilled.  So easy, every detail in clear focus, who could ask for anything more?

I have been taking pictures - and slides - for years. I started taking slides so that everyone in my classes could paint the same subject.
This was great for critiques. Of course the room had to be dark enough to see the slide, but we worked that out.

Then came the digital era. I was teaching less so I didn't have to think about mutiple prints for students.  Running off prints - 8 1/2 by 11" - is really fun and quite addictive. My photos became more about details and less about painting.

But wait a minute.. isn't painting the whole point? The paintings that I like are loose, with few lines indicating form, and there is lots of opportunity for making changes. I went with the flow, so to speak.
But I had ceased to work that way. I dropped my style for all those fascinating details.

It's taken a while for me to realize all this. Then I happened to look through some slides of subjects and paintings from before "Digital" took over. Wow. I really liked those paintings. They were better than
what I am doing now. Has any of this happened to you?

Stay tuned for my efforts to turn all those photos into My Style of painting.   Judy


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