Still Freefalling...

So I moved out of the moleskine and onto bristol board (approx 7"x12"). I've done maybe one more level of rock and laid out the rest of the fall and the surrounding greenery. That was all I could manage yesterday. For some reason, I am having to concentrate much more on this than on the portraits. I suppose I am just less familiar with this and so caution weighs me down with each stroke and I tire more quickly. I am still enjoying it, immensely, in fact, but after forty minutes I was ready for a break.

February's artist is VanGogh. I'm going to be honest here. I struggle with Vincent. Bottom line, I think, is that I am only familiar with his more famous works and most of them have that "tortured soul" aspect to them. Some people call this his genius, after all his torture still speaks to generations whose lives are completely different than his. But, I feel like I am rubbernecking at a crash site when I am looking at his works. That is a very "Pollyanna" kind of thing to say (and reveals the deepness of my ignorance, I'm sure). But, I'll confess, I like happy endings, I don't like unhappy endings. I read alot of non-fiction, so I have my fill of unhappy endings. In fiction, and art, I look for happy endings. In artwork, I even appreciate intense "unhappy" if there is a "grander plan" aspect to it. But his work tends to just be too much for me.

That said, I have plenty to learn from him, he is a genius, and a master worthy of attention. In fact, I began dabbling in his drawings and am very intrigued. He has a bunch of landscapes - so therein probably lies my participation in the Van Gogh project for this month.