Instill Wally Sedulous

Well well, old Robert Genn has hit me between the eyes again with his early morning post, 'Painters Keys, today.  I'll reproduce (copy, steal, paste) it here and hopefully drive a few of you to his site to tag onto his newsletter.  As they say, 'It's not just for painters any more!'

Five skills worth learning February 14, 2012 Dear Sandy, Drawing mastery is understanding our world and understanding relationships. Contrary to popular belief, drawing doesn't mean trailing a line around things--it means seeing and reporting the relative distances between things. Drawing is a non-literary way of looking--and the skill to put down what you see in a two-dimensional way. Drawing mastery takes time and patience. Colour mastery involves knowing the properties of pigments, both in theory and as chemicals that have certain effects on one another when juxtaposed or mixed. Colour mixes that call for opposites on the colour wheel (complementary), as well as nearby on the colour wheel (analogous), or even so closely related as to appear to be one colour (monochromatic), make for lively and sophisticated effects. Colour mastery takes time and patience. Abstract understanding doesn't mean arbitrary sloshing and messing. Abstract art is controlled visual magic based on laws and methodology. Abstraction generally involves implication, suggestion and mystery rather that obvious description. Like a good poem, a good abstraction attacks your feelings before your understanding. Abstraction within realism adds zest and excitement to otherwise dull subject matter. Abstract understanding takes time and patience. Compositional mastery is a variety of traditional rules that beg to be broken. That's why composition is the queen of the skills. With composition you learn to control and play with the eye and move it within the picture plane. Composition includes the golden mean, the rule of thirds, big and small, dark and light, activation, circulation, focus, pattern, stoppage and a pile of other ploys, many of them developed by you and unique to yourself. Compositional mastery also means the avoidance of lineups, homeostasis, and a jungle road of potholes too tedious and disheartening to include in a 500-word letter. Learn to compose intelligently in your own vocabulary and you can get away with murder. Compositional mastery takes time and patience. Emotional evolution means combining basic skills--such as the above--so that a unique voice and engagement occur. Finding yourunique voice may not be everything, but it's way ahead of whatever comes next. Emotional evolution takes time and patience. Best regards, Robert PS: "Skills aren't enough on their own. Emotion has to come through. But when you've got the various skills sewn up, that's one thing you don't have to worry about." (Zoe Benbow) Esoterica: You can choose to make unskilled art if you wish. Unskilled art has its allure. The mere act of moving paint around can produce joy. Knowing little or nothing in the "how to" department and failing to inquire about it can probably make some people happy and may even be good for the soul. But if you persist in this direction, your unskilled work will be like that of so many others--and you will begin to bore yourself. On the other hand, the skills I suggest are worth learning for their own sake--and they will stand you well no matter what you try to do. They are hard won. We value most what is hard won--and so do many others. Skills worth learning take time and patience.

Finally got back home last night, TY ordered a pizza and we picked it up on the way back from the airport.  Molly loves the airport run, and flattened herself out on my lap to pin me into the car for the whole ride back.  It's nice to be missed!  I have a stack of mail, a suitcase I can't lift because of a back that has suddenly failed me, and an empty refrigerator to contend with.  But there is also a huge bunch of the most amazing big roses  and a house that has been picked up nicely.  I am so happy.  Roses and pizza, I'm still a sap.  Not just Happy VD, also a Happy STD.  (Sorry, couldn't resist.)  

And so, as soon as I can put on my slide shoes so I don't have to bend over and find my car key, I'm off to the spider-filled studio to massacre a few and set myself to work. Projects for this week include finishing some big stitch quilting on the Four Turkeys, then adding a sleeve to the wedding quilt that was returned to be prepared to hang on the side of the Hemingway House in a few weeks. How Cool Is That???  Also, in Wedding News, I got a call finally from the rehearsal place after trying for weeks to just make sure that they have me booked.  Yes-  all systems go!  Now I can start having some fun.  And I also have to get serious about the centerpieces-  a project I am expected to deliver...and make it memorable...  More to follow as I fight my way through this one.