Sometimes life intervenes. I will be going to VT for the rest of this week so John Henry and Marie will go unfinished. No great loss. I am not happy with my work in either of the classes. Having a bit of a crisis of confidence in my figure painting abilities. I knew I would struggle after the summer off, after spending time painting from photos not life. Suffice it to say, I am struggling. I have taken the unsuccessful attempts down from the blog. I'm also re-thinking how I deal with the blog. Not sure I can handle posting all the work in process. TBD. . .
Hopefully a little time off to attend to a few things will put me in a better frame of mind. For now, I am going to post two of my best from last year to encourage myself to keep going. I'll be back as soon as possible!
Keep painting, friends. I'll be watching you for inspiration and encouragement. Don't hesitate to get in touch by email or by Facebook. "Friend" me if you FB! Take care. . .
Tonya, My heart goes out to you because I know how uncomfortable that feeling "crisis of confidence" is. I struggle with that all the time and find that I just need to press on and go ahead and post the bad ones, it always makes me look at them and try to understand why I don't like them. Then I go back and rework them. I love your lovely loose strokes and splashes of color that you achieved with photographs. Carol Marine really emphasized painting shapes of values and getting those right and not worrying about the details. I find these ideas helpful, even though I don't always practice them. What can we do though? You are brave to express your feelings. Enjoy VT...it is looking pretty darn lovely!
ReplyDeleteOh Tonya - I feel your pain! I go through it all the time. What I've learned in the past couple of years is that I just have to push through those periods and keep painting. I had one period that lasted a couple of months where I hated every single thing I painted. After those periods though, I find that I have a leap of some kind. Sometimes it is a new understanding of color, or brush strokes or light but those low periods always result in something positive on the other side.
ReplyDeleteYou're struggling right now but it could be because you are on the verge of discovering something new. Sort of like kids who gain weight prior to a growth spurt - they need to store up the energy to support their growth.
Keep painting and posting - it's not about perfection its about the process and learning!
Thanks much for the encouragement! All so true. I will press on. . .
ReplyDeleteI certainly know the feeling you describe. A friend of mine once said she and her paintings have a love/hate relationship. First she loves them; then she wonders how on earth she could have ever thought they had any value. Later if she's lucky, she'll like them again. The final stage doesn't always happen!
ReplyDeleteI have that same love/hate thing going; I think most artists do. If we were always content with our work, we would never grow, never have those "leaps" that Meg speaks of.
Your paintings above have lovely light, composition, gesture and color. I want to see more from Tonya Bates!