Dear Creative Adventurers,
Years ago I was reading through some artists blogs. They were counting their
strokes as a marker of a good painting. I tried to wrap my head around how this
might be equal to a good painting. When I looked at their pictures I could feel
their toil of counting all those strokes. I found them to be flat. As if they
were painting by number and measured strokes. I wanted to ask if they held a
counter in their hand as they stroked their canvas? Did they just count for 30
seconds and multiply by the time they painted?
Today I was painting water lilies from memory. I got so
excited as I began the shadowing process of the lily pads as they sunk into the
water. Water for me is hard. So much fun when the water colors lend a hand and
spread out in the right directions. I had this aha moment. I think this is what
the artists were trying to express by counting their strokes. There is this
moment in every painting where you put a stroke down and the picture pops!
Before this moment the picture is paper and shadowy colors. After the objects
in the picture have become dimensional. Most of the time I know which of the
objects in the painting will pop. Sometimes a stroke changes how the objects
will be seen. This stroke is what I paint for.
So if I were to count my paint strokes I would most likely tell you how many to this stroke and how many after. I have decidedly struck this out of my repertoire. Counting my strokes seems
counter intuitive to being creative.
Emily Froemel
edgeatmirage.com
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