Appointment With Destiny

“Freehand Horse Sketch”

Sounds pretty dramatic, doesn’t it? It may not be earth shattering to the world at large, but it’s pretty dramatic in my little world. I now have the first appointment to meet with my new mentor, and I can’t wait to see where this will take me, artistically!

One of the things that’s been holding me back from art is the feeling that when I do get back into it seriously my art just won’t be the same as it was. I may not have created much in the past few years, but much has been going on in my brain which is bound to show up on the canvas or paper. The other thing is knowing that I don’t want to do what I WAS doing, but I don’t know what I DO want to do. And, I don’t know how to get there. Does that make any sense?

I DO know that realism will remain my focus, but I’d like to make design a much more conscious part of the process (otherwise known as composition). I KNOW that is one of my weaknesses. An awareness of design is probably the biggest thing I gained during those art school days in commercial art. It applies just as much to fine art painting as it does to good graphic design.

On the one hand is an admiration for the Classical Masters and their time-consuming methods of laying on multiple layers of paint to achieve a very luminous surface. On the other hand, I like creating something in a few hours and having something new to hang on the studio walls and to show to the world on a weekly basis, like those one hour paintings I did a month or so ago.

I love the clear, bright colors of the Impressionists but would like to learn to use more subtlety in selection of a palette. And I definitely don’t like dark, brooding sorts of paintings.

My new mentor was trained in the classical manner in Florence, but he also came of age during the time when abstract expressionism, pop art and op art were at the forefront of the art scene. My hope is that, with all of his varied experiences, he can help me explore and find my individual artistic voice while at the same time teaching me all those technical things about art that would take me years to learn on my own, if I ever did.

Probably most importantly I’m hoping to gain enough self confidence to be able to risk failure and enough discipline to get me into the studio on a regular, if not daily, basis.

Wish me luck!