To Paint Things as They Are, or Take Artistic License?
Work in progress, in my make-shift studio (my dining room table.)
This past summer, I spent a decent amount of time plein air painting (painting outdoors.) What’s interesting is that while I love to paint outdoors, I don’t love to paint the scenery. As beautiful as it may be, I just get bored with all of that green.
So, I make adjustments. I change things up. I try to capture the mood, instead of painting the scenery faithfully. Frankly I can get really bored with a landscape painting if there isn’t something interesting happening in it.
Sometimes one must take artisic license.
My process is simple: I’ll start a painting out in nature, and finish it in my studio. I do this because, for one, I paint with oils, which is really a slow process. But also, it’s good to get away from the reference. Sometimes I take reference pictures, but I rarely use them back in my studio. Instead I think about standing out in nature, and I try to get in that same head space. Then I pick up the brush and let the canvas tell me what it wants.
Consequently, the final painting can be quite different than the reference picture. Which really makes it even more mine. And isn’t that what we want? I don’t want to see an overly realistic landscape - I want to see the painter in the painting. I want to feel how the artist might have felt when I look at her or his painting.
Think about this the next time you paint from life. At some point take your eyes off of the subject or the reference photo and use your instinct. See what happens!
