marysgardens

Learning the value of design

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This last week, I completed an art course taught by Michael Orwick through the Oregon Society of Artists .

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From this excellent course, I learned that design, once achieved, allows an artist to paint more freely and expressively.

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Although it may take more time initially to design and structure a painting, in the long run it saves time and frustration. As our instructor Michael Orwick said, you can paint a painting in an hour, or you can take 30 hours; it’s your choice. Without some preparatory thought about where one is going, it is possible to spend extra hours trying to clear a path on the canvas through a maze of ideas while struggling with too many shifting parts, be they lighting, perspective, color, value, shape or design.

We learned in this six-week course, to take our time and design a plan, to envision our painting. In the process we tried out different perspectives, shapes and structures to express our point of view. We learned that this is a journey, and when we slow it down a bit and enjoy the trip, it is a whole lot more illuminating and interesting. When we get to the actual painting, we are familiar with our territory and can enjoy the painting’s execution more fully.

Through these classes, I learned a lot.

I learned that painting without a design is a bit like driving through a forest without a road. Eventually, one might arrive where one wants to go. But with some advanced planning, one might reduce the amount of time and energy needed to set a path through the trees. This allows greater time for the sheer enjoyment of appreciating and painting the forest, while we are surrounded by interesting trees.

Michael Orwick provided us with a variety of techniques and approaches to design and encouraged us to experiment with all of them and to decide which were most personally useful in completing our paintings. He also encouraged us to know the rules, but to also understand that we can do most anything we want with art. The point of learning techniques and rules of artistry is not to inhibit us, but to free us to think about what options we have. The more options we have, the more creative and innovative we may be.

We were encouraged to improve on our questions about art while we decide on what are our intentions, what are our options, where do we go from here?

I have decided that I want to learn more about brush strokes and to more clearly establish ways to manage and vary them. I am also interested in improved ways to mix and understand color. I want to be able to ask more specific technical questions regarding choices of color and value.

Lucky for me, this course is followed by a six week course on Creative Color and the Luminous Landscape again taught by Michael Orwick through the Oregon Society of Artists, and I intend to take it.