Oh, to combine the knowledge that comes through experience with the desire that beginner’s feel! When you first fall in love with life, things look so radiant and grand. I cringe sometimes when I find someone trying to teach the young to be “sophisticated” about art. I have to bite my tongue to keep from shouting, “leave them alone!” A young heart already knows how to love in such a big way. One shouldn’t mess with that. I remember the brightness of my youth when art was a big, unanswered longing! If only I knew even a smidgen about drawing or color or anything! I moaned, as spurned lovers do. I bungled along led solely by desire.
One can suppose oneself to possess a lot of knowledge when you’ve been following an occupation a long time. I know how to mix the colors now and all that stuff. But I am always seeking the keen-ness of first love. I spent the day doing drawings en plein air. There’s really nothing like Nature to take you down a notch or two. I can suppose I know whatever I like, but it’s hard to draw things outdoors where life capriciously changes from second to second. And I’ve gotten rusty too from neglecting Mother Nature (and doesn’t she know!).
I decided to pretend I knew nothing. I’ve been looking at the how-to books lately, and I imagined I was in the plein air class of one of the authors. “Simplify! simplify!” he tells me. Okay, I’m cool with that.
The sky is blue, the grass is lots of kinds of green. The shapes — oh the shapes are so weird — and light and shade changes them while you watch.
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