Studio help

Elizabeth's Morning, 2008. oil on panel, 7 x 8

My sister and her family visited for a short time over the holidays. We always have a great time together. We eat all of our meals as a family at my folks house and visit just as much as we can together. I usually don't get much work done when they are here, but this year I was on a deadline...so it was work, work, work. One morning after breakfast I was getting ready to head out to my studio and my two oldest nieces (they are both in their teens) asked if they could come out to the studio also, and I said, "Do you want to help?" They looked at me like I was half crazy (well, they actually think that I am completely crazy, but that's another post!) They agreed, and we headed out to the studio.

I set up a couple of field easels for them to work on. At this point they were looking a little confused, and asked "Are we actually going to paint?" I drew a horizon line on each painting. Satisfied with its placement, I asked the girls, "What's your favorite color?" I mixed each color to their satisfaction (and mine) and then handed them the brush. They painted skies their favorite color and then the ground their second favorite color. Since I was mixing the colors I could control the color interaction (I believe this is the most important thing about painting) and therefore control what was happening in the painting. As the paintings went on I made sure that each additional color worked with what was aready there and told them where to put each color I mixed, but the paintings were based on their orignial color ideas. In the end I did paint the trees and any other final touch ups that needed to be done.

They really turned out looking like my work. To be fair, I really controlled all the decisions, they just put the paint on the panel. It got me to thinking what makes my work look like my work. I have always known it was not my paint handling skills and that morning proved that, at least in the beginning stages, but it was my color sense that made the paintings feel like mine.

It was an interesting exercise.