It's always interesting to see the painting digitized and uploaded. Of course you can't see all of the detail that you see in real life. But it's more than that. When I'm painting my nose is (very literally) so close to the canvas that sometimes I can't see the forest for the trees. Several times I have considered a painting finished, photographed it, viewed it on the website edit page, gasped, and gone back to the canvas. Obviously I don't think I'm finished this time, but it is another moment when I am seeing things I didn't see when I was sitting at my canvas. I actually like how her face is emerging from the canvas almost as if she is passing into the room through an ethereal veil. And even though her hands are just barely blocked in, they already feel as if they are hanging on to something important. At this stage I feel very much like a new mother looking at her perfect infant and praying that she will just not mess him up...
Perspective
I've been working so hard on "Sunday Dinner" the past couple of weeks that I haven't taken the time to really get out and enjoy the incredible weather we are having here on the coast. So today I decided to just do it. And, as I typically do, I tried to squeeze in too many errands and of course ran into glitches, so my artist date time got eaten up.
As I was driving along 101 looking out over Tillamook Bay I saw this flying saucer... I mean castle... I mean mountain... I mean... what is it? I pulled over and took a photo.
When I got home I was frustrated that my afternoon out produced only this one photo. As I was processing it I was thinking about how what it is depends on the perspective of the viewer. And then it hit me. The success of my artist date depends just as much on the perspective of the viewer.
If I had been determined to drive down 101 and look across the bay to see Cape Mears, I would have been sorely disappointed because a fog bank only allowed me to see the point of the mountain. Instead, I was delighted at the view the fog created. So maybe instead of being upset that my time wasn't spent the way I intended, I can be delighted that a handful errands can be crossed of my list, that I got to spend some time with people I love, I did an act of service, and I got to be out of the house breathing and seeing and listening and feeling an absolutely perfect day on the Oregon Coast.
Perspective...
Cloud Mountain
See that snow-capped mountain in the background? That's a cloud formation! It is actually sitting out over the ocean. These crazy cloud mountains are a phenomenon here on the coast that I discovered when I moved here.
How often do we see what we are used to seeing, or what we are looking for, instead of what is really there? Creating art is really all about creating a perception. Sometimes nature does it for us.