Out of My Element

I'm not one to just paint for painting's sake. But after visiting a show at the Quarryville library with very talented artists John Weaver and Mike Witmer, they inspired me to paint anything, even a still life I set up in my house. Now, if you've seen my house, you know how VERY uninspirational it is with saw dust and plaster dust all over the furniture, combined with my art studio being in the same living space as my office, living room and Lucy, our dog's room. It doesn't get much more uninspiring than that! But in order to do what I love to do, I've learned to live with it. And so last week, I took a shell that I found at the New Jersey shore and placed it in front of a canvas and painted it. Now here's why the show in Quarryville inspired me to paint the shell in the first place. The two guys stated that they had gotten together frequently over a period of time to paint the same thing, but from two different perspectives. It was so great to see the differences and unique styles between the two artists. A lot of the pieces were just still life's that they set up and made a lot more interesting as a painting than the real thing I can imagine. But because of their commitment to paint daily, or weekly, whichever they did, in order to develop their painting skills, and do it in a fun way by having someone do it with you, was really encouraging to me. I realized I need to paint more just to continue developing my style and abilities, and that it's okay if the painting doesn't "mean" anything. I've never liked painting something that didn't have a meaning behind it, but I guess I can get over that if I can get over living in a dull and prosaic house.