Sunday, October 21, 2012

Practice, Practice, Practice

Working on the head of a human being is to ask myself, "what am I hoping to say".  So often it seems that all that I am saying is that I can paint a human head.  Do I want it to have a likeness or the trade sometimes for me is expressionism or neither?  I find myself in love with expressive brushwork, thick paint application, definitive values and lovely color.  Then I catch myself still trying so hard to be technically correct and in the process lose it all.  I often complete a painting out of the pure exhaustion of just not getting it right and settling.  Then after a while I examine what I learned and often it is that at some point in painting I lose my original focus of expressing what I see.  That is funny in a way.  Holding on to that creative flicker without extinguishing it with a head full of information, is the challenge.  I sometimes just blow to hard and poof, it's gone.  So I practice, practice, practice to let myself go.  

3 comments:

Dana Cooper said...

Wonderful portrait Dori, and I like how you expressed what so many of us struggle with!

Joann said...

Yes, you expressed the difficulty so well. I'm beginning to enjoy doing still life, but don't want to get too technical, too perfect. When I do, I lose something in the translation. BTW, I love your portraits, too!

Ruth Andre said...

Lovely portrait. Isn't that what painting is - Practice-Practice? It seems I am always practicing.