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.
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