(^ Pale Blue Bottle with Heirloom Tomatoes. 2012. oil on panel. 5 x 7″. © Bullock Online 2012)
“Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.”
– A. A. Milne
“One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.”
– A. A. Milne (again)
I admit it — I find painting terribly difficult work sometimes. And if I am painting in oils, then doubly so. On the one hand, staying organized and neat prevents it all from becoming a mess. But painting is also about letting things happen, on their own to some extent, and allowing for unexpected discoveries.
Working small (this panel is only 5 x 7″) and aiming to complete it in one sitting means I have narrowed my range of colors to only six (not counting white and black). I can mix clean, bright secondary colors (orange, purple, and green) and some rather pretty muddy kinds of colors, some of which are unexpected and which I get when things start to go awry. We painters love those.
But it is not fun, I don’t think. It is hard work. And often frustrating. Yet something makes us painters do it anyway.
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