Why do I paint?
Cornelius Pass Red House, 10x8" Pastel on sanded paper
Why do I paint?
I was pondering this question as I was out alone driving about in my car today. Earlier this morning I was looking through a Plein Air magazine, (not sure who publishes it) and I was admiring all the many great current artists of our time. It seems that painting outdoors is getting more and more popular given the many pleasures it offers. So I ask you, why do you paint...and if so, is it outdoors?
I feel a great joy when I'm plein air painting. It comes from the challenge of making something out of nothing...drinking in the view and trying to capture the beauty before me on paper with a tray full of colorful pastels. What is even better than that, is painting with good friends. Even if there is nothing said, there is still the comradeship of others who enjoy the same thing. The smell of the air, the sounds of nature, the breeze, light, colors, shapes...I could go on. All in couple of hours I've made something to never be created again.
As fall tightens it's grip on the temps, I begin to feel saddened by my loss of painting out doors. It's a bummer that I'm a fair weather painter because being cold is not what I call fun. And pastels don't work so well in moist air. This week promises many clear, chilly days, but I can make only one of them due to my crazy schedule. I'll be out again, hopefully, but perhaps not until the new year has passed and the temps begin to rise.
So I ask you, why do you paint?
posted by Brenda Boylan at
October 17, 2010
4 Comments:
I don't know. haha.
Well, I was always interested and now that I have started I can't stop.
Love your red-red house. I feel the same sadness about the good weather about to end!
i love the colours in this, bringing cohesion to the composition. i wish i could give a 'clever' response to the question of painting but like Celeste i don't know. what i do know is that i'm tenacious to a fault when it comes to painting... the world goes by and i am unaware; when life impinges on my painting time i growl at it and wish only to get back to the easel; when i can't paint, i think about the waste of time and how much i have to learn; and when a painting goes wrong i get real down... so if i were to sum it up, it sounds like i am suffering from some illness;)
i paint in what used to be a dining room til i kicked out the dining part of it and now it is exclusively my art studio and music room with a view over my garden and grass and trees beyond... one day i will have to courage to take my easel outside and paint... it would be a wonderful new experience that i have never tried.
Hi Rahina,
Thanks for you honest dialogue. Yes, painting is such a personal thing that it is hard to look beyond our own emotions to really see why and how we do paint. It's an inner conflict at best.
Get out sometime with a makeshift easel and a tv tray to hold your medium. You will be pleasantly surprised by the joy it gives you, even if it's in your own backyard! Good luck! :)
Answer: Because I can't stop.
PS These early autumn pastels do show that sensitive sadness I hear in your writing.
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