School bells! And unless fate intervenes, I'll be continuing with my ten days of art workshops -- all-day sessions for ten consecutive Mondays, each session taught by a different artist-teacher. It's a "foundations" course in the basics, some of which I practice consciously, some of which I know in theory but haven't before focused on, some entirely new tricks of the trade.
Our first session touched on elements of design -- line, shape, form, space, texture, colour. There was some confusion and last-minute-itis about what we were to prepare in advance. Like several others, I understood we were to bring a simple line drawing on a small canvas. I brought out some of my favourite artifacts (from among my 500 or so favourite artifacts) and prepared this:--
During the course of the day, we had about two hours here and there to work on developing our example -- presumably giving thought to those six design elements. At the end, we were invited to finish our paintings at home and send the image to the instructor. My work-in-progress looked like this:
When I looked at it the next day, I could barely begin to deal with it. Soooo BORING! So I pinned up a vibrant fabric (once a cherished skirt) behind my set-up and began to have some fun:--
What the heck. It was an assignment. I couldn't start over again. So I just plain let loose and produced something that I'm not crazy about -- like Matisse on steroids? I suppose it deserves a title. I call it "The Pitcher Picture."
I took a photo of the setup for my records, remembering that Picasso had once said something like, "I never met a photograph I didn't like" ....as he counselled moving on from the world of photographic exactitude. I couldn't find that quote but found another, perhaps more useful:
"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
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