Thursday, September 20, 2007

Monet on Painting



Monet said, "When you go out to paint, try to forget what objects you have in front of you, a tree, a field. Merely think, here is a little square of blue, here is an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact color and shape until it gives you your own naive impression of the scene." (Quote from River of Light, by Douglas Skeggs, p.53)

Do you agree with Monet? There is some truth to what he is saying, certainly focusing on just object shapes, angles and negative shapes revolutionized my drawing. But when I tried it with trees...it definitely didn't work. I had to think about trees and how they are structured. So, I generally agree with Monet, but not specifically. But then, he was a master and I am not, so maybe I should try it again :-).

Above you see the completed "backside" of my next Gawler Ranges piece. I added some more value from yesterday. Then I flipped it over and have begun coloring on the front. Another update tomorrow.

5 comments:

Belinda Lindhardt said...

I think i have to agree with Monet Rose :) same as you. I definately have had to train myself to stop thinking i know what colours there are and shapes things are and actually am correcting my thinking all the way .. and realising that a shape i thought was shaped a particular way is actually another.

But there are times when i think you need to get an objective view to like a tree and think about the way you are talking about.

I loove this one by the way i think you have done such a fantastic job its great. !! well done

Belinda Lindhardt said...

sorry about the typos in that last post my brain doesnt appear to be switched on yet ... lol ... i hope you can understand what i meant :)

Rose Welty said...

Belinda, I do understand what you are saying (glad to know that I'm not the only one with an early AM brain affliction :-). Your mind can trick you, so you have to be careful and question it, but if you abandon it all together, well, joke's on you, I guess.

Thanks for the encouragement...we'll see on this one. My inexperience with trees may end up a fatal flaw...;D

Making A Mark said...

I like the range of values you've got with this one

I guess the most important thing is just not to draw what we know is there but to go for what we can see - with lots of squinting thrown in!

Then we get to open our eyes to see the colours.........

Rose Welty said...

Katherine...yeah, it's that opening eyes to colour thing that always trips me up! :D It is fascinating though.