I Get It

I get it. This might never be easy.

Did another values study today after about a six-week hiatus.

I can see that I can see values. That's good.

But really seeing, and staying with seeing while I paint? Just not easy.

Much easier is to slip out of seeing into assuming and categorizing and naming.

Unthinkingly "seeing" a finger as a finger, for example, instead of as a value and a shape, and then falling asleep from seeing altogether, painting the whole finger with one value.

I wonder when and how I will start applying my rudimentary values awareness in actual paintings. Ironically, I have done very few paintings with a reference in the past six weeks, and when I have, I've done them on the fly and with a high level of distractibility. I've barely given a conscious nod to value, and haven't yet set myself the focused task of painting something with attention to it.

And then there's abstract painting. Value plays into that as well, but in different ways, and damned if I know how!

For now, today's exercise. Undertaken with engagement, a few laughs, and humbling challenge.

values 6
2015