"Paintings With Personality"

I decided to post one of my sketches tonight. It is from one of my sketchbooks and about 6 inches square. The woman was selling produce at a market in Cusco, Peru. I quickly sketched her in ink and finished with the hatching later in our room.

Our son, Eric, and his wife, May, were here New Year’s weekend. We were sitting at the table supposedly playing cards, but mostly talking and laughing. Honey and Eric were partners playing against May and me. Our history with that particular game is that May and I always win. We Rule! On one hand (of cards), Honey trumped Eric’s high card, even though they were partners. We all wondered why, and Honey said he wanted to play his power while he had the chance, leading with a six of clubs as he spoke. We cracked up, we laughed till we cried. As anyone who plays cards knows, the six of clubs is not powerful. (OK, maybe you had to be there). It’s easy to know a card with power, they are rated by number and/or trump suite, with the face cards being the highest.

I wish knowing what is powerful art was as easy. We all see extraordinary and ordinary artwork. The extraordinary is art that grabs a viewer’s attention, remaining in their memories for years and demanding to be owned. The ordinary is the art that ends up in a closet.

The most important concept in making all great art is great design. The two most important things in making a great painting are value and design. That means strong shapes, masses, and powerful value contrasts. The design is the structure, or the foundation, and when it is good, the painting demands attention. Even a beautiful scene will end up a boring, copied scene without a good design. Painters have to do most of their thinking before they begin painting, but they don’t need all the answers, there has to be room for invention and discovery.

In making a good design, it isn’t about what you put into your work, but about what you leave out. Give the viewer just enough information to help them understand a little of what you are feeling, then let them go the rest of the way alone, making their own discoveries. If everything can be seen and understood at first glance, the viewer quickly moves on to the next painting.

Decide what you want your work to be about and what kind or reaction you want from your viewer, then make your design decisions. To create your design, group the lights and darks into shapes, and then separate them into large abstract masses. Concentrate on shapes and patterns, not detail. The lost and found edges where the values meet.

Art is about creating something interesting, so make your goal about the effects of light and dark and how you organize your shapes, not about getting the scene exactly right. Leave out everything that isn’t necessary to your message. When you make decisions and only use the scene as a reference, your paintings will change dramatically.

As for the card game mentioned at the beginning of this post… the guys won that time.

How powerful is your work? Think about it. Later, Judy

http://judyballance.com/