My husband and I were sitting in the living room last night, doing our regular evening Netflix and iPad dance where we pretend to watch a movie while browsing the interwebs for anything diversion-worthy. Conversation often blurts out when one of us notices something the other may be interested in. The blurt upon which I now reflect was related to the juxtaposition of these two paintings:
We had just come back from a very quick plein air painting session in which we time-boxed 1.5 hours to complete a painting. I liked my little painting (above, right) and thought it a nice step in my progression. Until I saw it juxtaposed beside a professional piece on Pinterest. I said to my husband, (paraphrasing myself):
“I thought my painting was not so bad until I see it beside a real painting, which makes it look like finger painting.”
He just smiled and nodded.
And then my mind went on to justify itself and satisfy my ego by saying “but I don’t want to paint that way, I want to be more loose”. And while that is true and I do want to paint more like Roos Schuring and I am training (not copying) to that end, I was nonetheless, justifying and satisfying.
It is not easy being both a student and a professional at the same time!
I can see where I want to go. I know I will get there eventually through dedication, focus and work – most importantly, work. But the paintings aren’t at the level my other work is in other mediums, so I am embarrassed. Simply put.
And yet I enjoy the process of learning and love those glimpses of understanding how others paint. I enjoy seeing the progression of others as they learn; It’s a mixture of little successes and plenty of failures. A painting can fail on the “final, professional piece” level while succeeding in the learning process and in small bits on the canvas. Some of the marks and colours I made in the Swan Lake Study are lovely. I just need to learn and practice how to make more of those beauties and figure out how to… well, I could write a whole post on what I need to learn. I’ll just leave it at that.
And leave you with my most favourite Roos Schuring painting of the moment. Isn’t she lovely?!
