I went today to the Howard Terpning exhibit at the Autry and to the Edgar Payne exhibit at the PMCA. It was a great trip with fellow artists and lovely that Tim drove (thank you, thank you!). I'm going to let the exhibits sink in for awhile. I was surprised by the fact that the Terpning impressed me more than I expected and Payne less. They are both significant arists and I saw some amazing paintings. I wonder if it is partly that Terpning is from my time and Payne painted close to 90 years ago. Representational art has moved along. What seemed revolutionary in Payne's day, is today a jumping off place.
The personal lesson for me from the day, and one I will paint from tomorrow - take my time, solve the problem presented. Let go of the painting if it doesn't work. But, stick with it until you are sure it doesn't. Understand what went wrong before you let go. When you see the results from two artists who applied such methodical methods from design to completion, the value of planning and conscious decisions is very apparent. There are no accidents. They made it happen.
