Thoughts to share, ideas to ponder

In contrast, painting Nina under the controlled spotlight in the comfort of my studio as a reference for the vase and painting Rose Red was more relaxing.

Or, when painting the still life under the same type of spotlight for a workshop demonstration, the variables were more manageable.

The answer to that is simple: while all types of painting under all light conditions will always be challenging and never easy, plein air painting offers the most extreme variation in nuances of light and color with the added variables of moving sun, blowing wind, and changing shadows. All of that contributes to a great level of uncertainty as I work.

And why is uncertainty a good thing? I think about the fact that wonder and awe and inspiration are all rooted in a recognition of something much larger than myself, reinforcing the fact that I never will be certain...and I never want to be. Nature is way too big and variable and grand to "capture" with paint pigments. Turns out to be a strange contradiction that throwing myself into uncertainty with my paint tools ready is the place where I grow as an artist. Most artists will say that rather than "arriving", constant growth and learning--predicated on working through uncertainty--is the best place to be.

When beginning this large painting which turned out to be the study for the final painting "Danse Lumiére Èternelle", the complexity of the subject and the plein air variables were formidable. I had to hang onto my painting board to keep it from blowing my everything over. The fluttering light was changing, but my goodness: the glow behind those roses and the way the planes of those pink satin toe shoes shone blue when facing the brilliant sky!

I felt very small against the magnitude of nature, revealing all that was beautiful and wonderful, the rock of uncertainty in my stomach anchoring me as I picked up the pastel stick and began.

As a sophomore in high school, I read Jack London's novel Call of the Wild, and as I completed the final paragraphs, it was time to bring out the kleenex. The story is gripping and raw, one of survival and brutality for sure, but also one of loyalty and truth and is strangely uplifting.

The Call of the Wild was published in 1903, but going back 15 years:

* at age 12, Jack London teaches himself to sail;

* two years later, after graduating from grammar school, he works in a cannery 18-20 hours at a stretch;

* later, he becomes an oyster pirate and master sailor;

* subsequently, he changes sides of the law to work the fish patrol;

* later joins a gang, learning how to hobo;

* then he becomes a sailor on a seven month voyage to Japan and the Bering Sea;

* upon returning, works in a jute mill for 10 cents an hour, * wins an essay contest;

* later works shoveling coal seven days a week, 13 1/2 hours per day;

* joins the "Industrial Army of the Unemployed" to march to Washington;

* deserts the army, hobos on trains where he learned to "ride the rods" under the train (and almost died when his jacket caught on fire);

* was later arrested for vagrancy and spent 30 days in jail.

Returning to Oakland, Jack London is a mere 19 years old.

Determined to finish high school, he enrolls as a freshman and gets a job working as the school janitor to support his mother and step father. He submits essays and stories for publication in the school paper (but is not allowed to join the staff as he does not have enough underclass credits). From James L. Haley's book, Wolf: The Lives of Jack London, "the work was far superior to that of students who had seen little and lived less, although everyone knew he was the janitor....no fewer than eight of his pieces were published in the journal during the year".

Writers are always admonished, "write about what you know". In a similar vein, representational painters are admonished to paint from life: look at the real subject in front of you and paint it. Don't use a photo and certainly not someone else's photo! Painting from life breathes experience into the final work in inexplicable ways. It is the same reason a painted portrait will bear more of a likeness to the subject if the subject is alive and breathing in front of the artist as the painter captures the uniqueness of his or her character. Does that mean that photos are never used by representational painters? No, but it does mean that experience working from life informs the photo in a way that lack of experience can never make up for.

Jack London's novels are captivating because they resonate with the truth of his direct experience and the emotions he felt while living those experiences. It informed his storytelling in the same way that painters who paint directly from life as a regular practice infuse their work with truth. Experience informs truth and truth makes for art that resonates with human emotion.