Scribbler

By scribbler

Windows

The painting on the left was made looking out the window of my Aqueous Media classroom yesterday. The one on the right came from the window of my mind a week ago.

I never make slavish copies of what I see. My motto is, "Close enough for government work." Anyway, the intricacies of these buildings would have been impossible to capture with watercolor in so small a format. And besides, the light kept changing. 

I was long ago taken by a statement about the artist Janet Fish that said she didn't try to capture a particular quality of light in a particular moment, but simply kept painting the light that was there, however many hours, days, or weeks the painting took. I was intrigued by that, and took it for my own modus operandi. Thus the sky that happened to be blue when I painted it yesterday was at other times a flat grey, or full of the drama of clouds. 

When I'm working from something real, there comes a point when I stop being interested in accuracy and turn my attention to the painting qua painting. Ultimately, I stop when I've created a composition that I like looking at. The teacher of this class has a keen eye, and I solicited her advice before making the final touches. After that I was pleased to receive her imprimatur.

I took several pictures of the painting by natural light and by indoor light. This is the one where the computer screen best captures the colors I see with my naked eye. Of course, your computer may differ.

Experiments like this always remind me that, however much I enjoy digital reproductions of art, there is no way to fully reproduce the experience of being in the artwork's presence. 

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