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Allow Yourself to Feel

Awash in Obscurity, Oil on Panel, 30X40"

Everyone has a "feel" for something--an instinct born of experience that tells us whether something is on or off the mark. Does this play any role in your painting?

 Sidney Oliver

A friend told me today that when she walked into my most recent show with her fellow art students, one of them pointed to the painting above and said, "What do you see in it?" My friend answered, "I don't see anything. I feel."

Just as in life, and perhaps more so in art, feeling with all of its meanings is paramount to experiencing all that is around us. 

Sid, I'm not sure I've heard this discussed in art circles, but I think feel is vital to painting. Some might think of it as more of a sense, some a real feel, and some have no idea what to call it other than a certain knowledge based on experience.

In life, there are subtle social nuances that some people just never get. Other people are off the charts at getting this feel regardless of the culture in which they find themselves. There are all types of instances where this unknowable attribute comes into play.

A cook has a feel on how much salt to add and another type of feel while kneading the dough for bread. A baseball pitcher has a feel for the exact way to throw a knuckleball and another type of feel when a player is about to steal a base. Surgeons have a feel for how much or how little pressure to use in surgery and another type of feel when speaking to the families of those on whom he just operated.  

Some of this nuanced feeling is tactile or literal as in physically touching something like the baseball and some of it is metaphorical or merely a sense as in adding salt. We touch something and we feel what we have touched. We sense something and we feel what we have sensed. Pay attention and notice the different ways one feels.

A painter experiences all aspects of feeling when painting and just like the cook, the baseball pitcher, and the surgeon, that feel comes from practice and experience. It doesn't come from books, watching videos, or pondering it. 

What type of feel does a painter possess?

As one would expect, each medium requires a different feel, but with any medium, there is an awareness, a conscious feeling whether it is based on something tactile or from some esoteric factor. 

Watercolorists develop a feel for just exactly that right amount of water that is needed on the brush. I've found myself taking off the tiniest drop of water just because I knew I had too much. A watercolorist shouldn't touch the paper due to the natural and applied oils on his hands, but the watercolorist can tell a lot by the look and the feel of the pigment on the brush. Each paper or board gives off a different feel as the brush filled with water and pigment touches it. The experienced painter knows what to expect and develops substrate preferences based on the desired feeling.

A watercolorist learns just the right amount of pigment to include in making certain mixtures and how much water to add to those mixtures. He knows how much Burnt Sienna to combine with French Ultramarine Blue to get the right amount of dark tones needed for the correct value. Sensing and feeling again.

To me, the tactile aspects of painting in oil bring me back day after day. I tend to think of my job as wallowing in the paint.

Oil painters have more versatility than a watercolorist. Not only can they put their hands all over the substrate whether it be a panel or a canvas or even paper, but they can also develop the skills they developed as children and use their fingers and hands. Finger painting on Ampersand's Gessobord is easy on the fingers, but be careful using canvases. I swear, one time I suspect I filed off some identifiable finger characteristics while finger painting on a rough, textured canvas.

Oil painters develop a feel for how much of each pigment to mix and, if using a medium, how much to include. Certain areas need a light touch with the brush and palette knife whereas other areas need a heavier and sometimes harsher touch. There is a different feel a painter gets when using a brush as opposed to a palette knife. I have to admit that I do find that I come alive more when I put that palette knife in my hand.

As a painter, let that feel become second nature. The only way for that to happen is to paint. Trust your gut. After all, your gut is nothing but a feeling based on a learned process or experience.

As a viewer, try to do just as my friend did in the anecdote at the beginning of this post. Allow yourself to feel when looking at art. It's not all about seeing. It's also about feeling and I would hazard a guess that what you felt will stay with you a heck of a lot longer than what you saw.

Whether you are a painter, viewer, or both, remember to give yourself permission to...  

Enjoy the process! 

  Ruthie Windsor-Mann

This post is part of a series of Q & As between Ruthie Windsor-Mann and Sidney Oliver. 

We invite the reader to join in with other questions in the comments section. This needs to be interactive in order to work.

All photographs are by Ruthie Windsor-Mann unless otherwise credited.

Copyright 2019 Ruthie Windsor-Mann All Rights Reserved