Painting - representational

It was nice to be able to paint a representational piece in class this week. And the motivation really helped me decide what I wanted to work on, which ended up being a scene of my upcoming honeymoon. I also really enjoyed the addition of turquoise into our pallet. It really allows for richer depth in color that can’t be achieved in the same way with just the other primary colors in the pallet.

With the motivation and the addition of turquoise, I was moved to paint a ship on water with silhouettes of myself and my new husband standing on the deck, waving with a sort of comic book bubble coming out of our heads with hearts in it. I have found in my work with painting in class that I am unable to get down on paper what I might have in my head in terms of images. I think this partially stems from the fact that I did not consistently use paint as a medium in my educational upbringing. I also think that’s why I gravitate toward photography as a favored artistic medium because it’s so accurate in its representation of the image, by its nature.

I think that though I was more comfortable being able to paint representationally, I felt freer painting nonrepresentational images. I wasn’t concerned with making sure the image was just right, I just used the materials for what they were and painted. It was an interesting exercise to have to paint both ways to see what each one feels like. It also helped me understand how important it is not to push children into a stage that they’re not ready for and let them express themselves with painting in whatever stage they’re comfortable with at the time.