Saturday, October 10, 2009

When Magic Happens

The Mount Arises - Fredericks

I sat in MacDonalds yesterday afternoon enjoying coffee with a friend. As we talked, I made some space at the table, and slid a couple of my 9x12 watercolours out of a plastic bag as a launching pad for our afternoon art talk.

Don examined the pictures and looked at me. "What do you want me to do?" I was surprised by his comment for I had anticipated him to strike the match under a lively critiquing session. But Don was interested in bigger game. He had his eyes set on my overall direction in art and his questions were both probing and challenging.

"Do you know what I would suggest, he asked?"

I looked, with puzzled eyes at him.

" I would take a smaller mat, and scan over them to see if I could find an interesting picture within the larger picture and I would paint that smaller picture, again and again and then watch what happens, for each time you paint a picture your comfort level increases, you work the flaws out of it. And as your comfort level develops, you aren't thinking so much on what you are doing. and then your right brain kicks in."

He leaned back, gave his coffee a little swirl and continued. "After that you will find that you become more relaxed and happier in what you are doing, and this is when magic takes place."
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