Rethinking How to Paint with Help from Hawthorne

I picked up a highly recommended old standard, Hawthorne on Painting, a collection of notes by Charles W. Hawthorne, and I must say I highly, highly recommend it myself. I love his approach to painting and the way he sees everything as spots of color. I've heard this a million times before, but there's something about the way he communicates this that really makes me want to paint. He drills home the same ideas... don't paint pictures, paint spots of color next to each other.

 

I've been painting pictures. There is nothing exciting or new in a painted picture. But seeing and laying down color in a way that creates rhythms of light against dark...that's painting. "Painting has little to do with drawing... Don't think about rules. Don't paint thinly; don't skimp on your use of paint and canvas... Do lots of starts; rarely finish anything... Paint studies, not pictures..." Etc., etc., etc... little nuggets of plain and simple excitement. I love it. I love the freedom and the fun in this approach.

 

So I'm going to stop painting pictures. As strange as it sounds, this will be a challenge. It involves doing away with everything presumed to be "correct" and starting over with a new approach, and a new way of looking. But it feels like freedom!

 

 

Master Bedroom
24 x 32"
Oil on Cradled Board

 

I loved painting this painting. It took a little over three hours. I'm leaving it just as it is. There is a lot missing in this digital representation. There is so much more color in Ozzie. Maybe it shows up a little better in Picasa. Or maybe it's just my computer screen that washes it out.