Don't Overthink, Overwork, Overedit...Or If You Do; Keep the Sketch - Original Art & Story by Sandra Russell

 

Don't Overthink, Overwork, Overedit...Or If You Do; Keep the Sketch

Original Art & Story by (c) Sandra Russell

This washed off illustration is as a souvenir or as an illustration of the beauty that inspired it; now more or less trash. The yellow is all over the place, and the original poetry of the tree is lost in too many afterthought branches. I left it this way to prove a point. That point being that sometimes we overwork an initial impression to make it 'right’ and lose the original. The results may have been more correct as a result of these many focused moments, but the poetry was lost. The result was no longer personal, and the whole thing became wooden and lifeless. I myself am often content with a gestural strike and a slur that shoots from the hip. It's juicier and more alive and I don't mind that. I am hoping to bridge the gap of 'doing it right' and 'doing it truthfully' by drawing and painting outside in watercolor, in pencil sketches and allowing the moment to be what it is. 

Monday morning I went to Rising Park in Lancaster, Ohio. Lisa Schorr is the director of arts education at The Decorative Arts Center of Ohio (DACO). They are offering a free and open painting, drawing and fellowship opportunity with plein air painting. I did not stay long as I had forgotten some of my equipment but it was a gorgeous day, the pond was glistening with sheets of colors in the sunlight. I could see a sort of cobalt blue just where the water met at tan. But at the periphery of my view, olive green and teal shards floated above a burnt umber ground. The spring greens and harshly yellow baby grasses and shrubs lay in stripes of crayon green and piney darks across the lawn. The people around me were absorbed in their own responses to the sight before them and probably also the mission/dream/bias of what they would eventually be taking home as a work of art?

I tried to work from memory, a big mistake...not to say that had I had all my colors with me to capture what I saw, (not what a camera saw) I could have done a studio work from that; that would hold much of the meaning of the original sketch? I know that they will be doing this from 10:00 till 12:00 noon on Mondays in May. Anyone with an interest in such fellowship and study is welcome to attend. Just look for the banner or the easels, or the sketchbooks and join in.