The One True Thing

Along A Road Above Quinson

  oil on panel  "7 x 9"

"There is only one true thing; instantly paint what you see. When you've got it, you've got it. When you haven't, you begin again. All the rest is humbug."

Edouard Manet

I especially like the "all the rest is humbug" part and Manet has hit the essence of painting right on the nose - without mincing words. This one was done in the high country in eastern Province where I traveled in mid-May. The country was so beautiful that I wavered toward trying to capture too much in any one panel - but I've taught myself a valuable habit over the years: at the outset, before one makes a single mark on the panel - step back and ask yourself what visual incident or poetic moment triggered you to choose to paint this scene? 

The answer cannot be about things or names of things (roads, fields, trees, and so on) - it must be about shadow and light, space, shape, pattern, and color. Therein lies your "one true thing" for that moment and that work - to hold fast to that visual poetry at the expense of all else, all unneeded detail, all color or value foreign to your intent. If you can do this - if you can allow the poetry of the visual incident to guide your process - you will know "you've got it."  The incredible thing about immersing and abandoning one's self to this process is it becomes something quite addictive and joy-filled. 

Glorious Day, Provence

  oil on panel  6" x 8"