The old master painters often fixated on the same scene. Monet and his water lillies, a bridge over the water- started as sketches of the same scene that became multiple versions of a masterpiece. What purpose comes from repeating the same image or idea?

I have always had a vague inspiration that turned into a finished painting and then I was on to the next piece. I have recently learned how much progress comes from studying the same scene.

Define What the Viewer Needs to See:

What inspired you to start the painting in the first place? Asking this question will often dictate how your technique and process will show the viewer what you want them to see.

I have watched the sun burn out the sky and the lake in the same location on many occassions. I have often thought how can light be created when there is only paper, canvas and paint. I don’t want the viewer to see a pastel with light that is flat or clearly created with a bright hue. I want the light to be its own entity that is beyond simply texture or paint.

My first attempts were using complementery colors to make the background pop. It was a mild success but I still wanted to see the light separate from the 2 dimensional field. In a pastel, it is not easy to keep the whitest white pristine.

The Image will Teach the Artist as the Artist Learns the Image:

There is a reason a light appears as it does to the eye. There is a cause and effect of different textures and colors showing themselves in a certain way to the viewer.

This is the magic of art, to show a 3 dimensional image on a 2 dimensional plane, the artist needs to be a bit of a magician. This takes not only learning how light reaches the eye but also the interaction of the scene.

To know how and why things appear in a subject, you must truly learn and understand your subject. Sketching and resketching not only allows the wisdom of truly seeing but also to know how your subject is seen on any given hour or light condition.

This process of studying and rehashing the same concept will also help the creative in writing about a subject, photographing and truly seeing what is real versus what the conscious mind needs to explain in shorthand.

A camera is looking to describe a scene in a basic gray, the photographer needs to show the camera how to adjust its eye to capture what makes the scene feel and appear expansive and beautiful even when reduced to a 2D plane of a photograph.