"Out of the Shadows"
Oil on canvas, 6" sq., c. Catherine Vines
About 4:00 in the morning - when I still couldn't get to sleep - I had a blinding revelation: I can't paint. Why did I ever think I could? How could I have invested my life in something I'm still no good at?
The next day one of my private students - all of 5 years old - was complaining about his shark: "It just doesn't look right!" I talked to him about practice and patience. Finally it clicked for me. So I'm not the great painter I secretly yearn to be. I care about improving and I work hard at it. What else matters?
This painting revisits a recent purple/yellow color scheme (see March 19 posting) in the Magnolia Series. A mixture of these two colors makes the loveliest browns, if not the best choice for a portrait. See. I learned something.
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