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"Evening at Balchik"

12 x 16 watercolor

available

 

For myself as an impressionist a successful painting is one that evokes a strong emotional response.   Of course I want the basic elements of design supported by both subtle and powerful value shifts, but most of all I want my painting to pull the viewer into my world.   I was thinking how is this accomplished?  What does an artist do to evoke emotion into a piece of art.   This led me to think about emotion in general and I began to draw analogies between love and painting.   It was surprising to me how easily a good painting is defined by the essence of passionate love.

 

When we fall in love, everything is more beautiful.   We see the world in living color.  All the rough edges are somehow softer.   The colors more vibrant.  The sounds sweeter.  Everything is enhanced.   We see reality as somehow better than it really is.   This is true in painting.   But how to achieve this?

 

First of all it cannot be forced.   Passionate love is inspired.  We see someone and are drawn to them.   This is true in a painting.  Uninspired work usually turns out to be more academic than full of life and energy.  To have inspiration and an emotional response toward a subject, this then becomes evident in your work.  

 

Second of all,  as in love,  we eliminate extraneous stuff that gets in the way of pursuing our main goal.  We clear our calendar to make a place for the object of our affection.   In a painting the focus becomes our priority.  We must edit and clear away things that are not important to the story.   For example in the painting of the boat in Florida we will eliminate all of the fussiness in the background to focus on the warm area of sunlight shining on one boat.   This is the object of our affection.

 

Third, knowledge.   When you fall in love you want to know everything about the person.  You become an expert on that person.  Also true in a painting.   Especially in impressionistic work, you have to know your subject.    I love trees.   I study trees endlessly.   And I have become very good at painting trees.   I also love light and the portrayal of it.   I study light with the obsession of a jealous lover.   I record constantly in my mind what I am seeing.   In a painting,  your best paintings will be subjects that you know well and have devoted yourself to.  For me this means hours upon hours by the sea.

 

Fourthly,  when we fall in love we bring our best self to the relationship.   Clean, rested, well groomed.  And aside from that we bring our best attitude and most positive behavior.   Hopefully we leave our whiney inner child behind.   When you come to paint…….be rested….be positive…..be enthusiastic….be confident….be happy.

 

In every good relationship there is contrast.   Contrast brings excitement and energy!   This is also true in painting.   A good painting has contrast in temperature from warm to cool, large to small, textures.  A little tension is a good thing.  It keeps it exciting.  For me in painting contrast between the darkest and lightest value and opposites on the color wheel are very good ways to create great excitement and an emotional response to a painting.   I want the viewer to smell the air in my work.   To hear the sounds.  Contrast helps achieve this!   Just as we often choose opposites in love…..these principals work well in a painting….elements that my be very opposite but when combined make a perfect statement.

 

 

In a healthy relationship we work hard to stay connected.    We want to be there to bring stability and comfort.   Intertwined.   A successful painting carries this very important aspect as well.   We hope to achieve good depth in a painting in order to create layers of interest.  Everything must connect though.  The foreground to the middle ground to the distance.   Whether a landscape or still life.  If your painting is chopped up into disconnected segments it will feel very cold.  Almost frightening.   In fact,  if you look at art that is intentionally upsetting or cold you will find isolated elements.   In my world of romanticized impressionism you will always find that everything touches, overlaps and connects.  Much like a deep love relationship.

 

 

Another healthy aspect of a loving relationship is giving up control.  You can love another person but you cannot control them.   Hopefully you bring structure and a stability that brings confidence but you must allow your partner the freedom to express themselves as well.  This is so true in watercolor.   I will bring my knowledge and skill to the project but I have to allow watercolor the freedom to be true to itself.  Watercolor pigments have a tremendous amount of energy.  They react in a wonderful way when allowed to.   I love to call my work “controlled chaos”.  I know what I want to happen and I guide the process but I also allow the pigments a great deal of freedom to run around the paper merging of their own free will.   You will see me do this a lot with my board, flipping in and maneuvering it in many directions to help the water and pigments do their own thing.

 

 

Sometimes in relationships we become tired.   We feel misunderstood or just plain frustrated.  This happens all the time in paintings.    The focal point becomes a point of dread.  We find ourselves dragging our heals in finishing a painting.  Typically this happens when we work too hard at it.  Continuing to pick at something that just needs to be left alone.   Also after the initial excitement wears off…you know that wonderful feeling in the first three brush strokes where you feel you have already achieved a masterpiece?    Then there is the middle……you have added all of the middle values and the painting looks rather blah……..but never forget..there is a beautiful finish waiting.  You have to wait out the middle in order to get to the good part at the end……adding the beautiful dry brush strokes…..the finishing touches of dark and light.    So yes,  like love, sometimes we become bogged down in the middle but don’t give up.   A bright finish may be just around the corner.

 

Lastly,  some relationships just don’t work out.  As some paintings just don’t work out.  But don’t let that ruin your enthusiasm for love or painting.  I have found that  the road to sweet success is paved with trial and error.   Allow yourself the grace to have failures, it is from these that the greatest lessons are learned.

 

 

I will do my best to show you technical things that will help make watercolor more fun and enjoyable for you.  What I can’t teach you is how to have a relationship with your art.  This must be developed on your own.  You must spend time with your brushes.  When you become emotionally connected to your art then you will begin to produce work that is truly engaging with the viewer.   I can suggest ideas on how to achieve this but really you simply must paint.   and paint…..and paint…..and paint……….

 

Let’s paint!   Sandra L. Strohschein                   sandralstrohscheinfineart.com