I need to learn to simplify. To focus on the details only when I want to, and learn to see my subject as color and tones masses, rather than this particular object or that.
With that goal in mind I decided to participate in The Twenty Minute Challenge, administered by Teri of Teri's Painted Daisies.... click here for a link to Teri's blog where you can access the TMC (Twenty Minute Challenge) and Cactus Monday... I joined that too!
With the TMC, you get 20 minutes to draw and paint your picture. That's it. No fudging on the time! As my timer counted the minutes down to zero, mild panic set in and I began to sling paint faster and faster! That accounted for some of the sloppiness in this. It was a great exercise, and though slightly nerve wracking when you're getting close to running out of time, it was lots of fun. So nice to just paint and not keep second guessing my choices.
I'm beginning to understand the truth of the statement that "in art quantity equals quality." Read the books, watch the videos, take the workshops... all great tools. But in the end, it's the time at the painting table or easel that makes one an artist.
I've posted my first (and sloppy) TMC painting. Shucks, 20 mins is a minor miracle for me... I consider one day to be a challenge ;-)
