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Ideas?

Posted on 3/28/2020 8:44:30 AM - Comment on this
Topics: Q&A Series | Talks/Instruction

Ideas?

Above is the reflection of a sunrise in my kitchen window. I ran outside with my camera to take the sunrise and, when I turned around, I saw this.

Ideas even come from beauty behind us...

and, no, I haven't painted this.

Ruthie, if I may ask, where do you get your ideas for paintings? Do you see a scene from, say, outdoors and see it whole, or do you see vignettes? What makes an idea viable?

Sidney Oliver

Sid, light matters. It matters a lot. Light is the entire reason for being a painter.

Yes, I do realize that I have begun to paint fog lately, but fog adds an additional quality of intrigue. By its very nature, fog lacks the striking light found on subjects on a bright day. Fog contains an eerie quality due to the absence of a normal light source. Some objects are seen clearly, while other objects appear elusive.

Rural Fog, 8X10," Oil on Panel

This is a small study of the obscure nature of fog in the winter.

I've written before about how I became interested in painting fog and how objects appear in the fog. One day I was driving through major fog in Orange County, VA on my way to Richmond. From that moment, I was hooked on trying to recapture the feeling and the beauty I felt and saw while passing what appeared to be partial objects.

Individual ideas come from all over the place, but light plays a huge part in my choice of subject matter.

Before the sun came up the other morning, I was struck by a small vase of daffodils reflected in kitchen window. It was black outside and the yellow and the black contrasted with each other in an enticing way.

That image became this painting:

Spring Bouquet, 16X16," Oil on Panel

While painting I threw some other colors in because the painting called for it.

It's not a duplicate, but there are some similarities. The wheels in my brain with a simple reflection in the kitchen window.

Unless you see the actual painting, bear in mind that the photograph makes the flowers look far more orange than the real version.

Ryan's Flowers, 12X16, Oil on Panel

Another painting with reflections. These are fun to do.

After I thought I was finished, I realized that I needed to go back and make the edges fuzzy on the reflected vase

to make it appear as a reflection and not two vases.

At times I hunt for subject matter, but I feel the subjects that appear out of nowhere are the most intriguing. They don't look as forced.

This is a photograph I took a few seconds ago to illustrate the point I just made.

Granted, I doubt if I will paint this, but this weird cloud formation appeared outside my kitchen window.

If this were painted, I fear it would look manufactured.

Many times I have ideas that I allow to percolate in my brain for a while. At the moment, I've had one idea that has been there for almost a year. I'll begin once I'm ready. When will I know I'm ready? When I have no desire to paint anything other than what's in my head.

At times, ideas don't work out. Learning from your mistakes is more valuable than learning from your successes.

On looking at some of my paintings, I realize that I've tried to record the feeling rather than what I actually see with my eye. Photographs are wonderful aids, but the photographed color can be deceiving as in the first painting shown in this post. I was always confused by the opposing viewpoints of paint what you see, not what you know vs. the acknowledgment of the deception of photographs. Even though photographs are deceiving, do you paint what you see in them? Painting on location gives one a better reading, but things still need to be added as well as subtracted from the painting.

I've been doing this long enough that I now just trust my eye. If something doesn't look right or needs something else in the painting, I fix it regardless of what I see in reality. After all, no one has seen the reality but you.

Enjoy the process!

Ruthie Windsor-Mann