Back to Joyce's

We met at Joyce's house last week and I'm feeling a bit nostalgic. I found this photo in my files from February 2011. This wasn't exactly the start but it was still early in the garage.

But here we are today. Beginning with three strong starts....

Judy Lehr

Cathy Baca

Rita Brey

 And Dolly's two. As I posted this one I heard. " I don't know what I'm doing.." again.....

And I just realized that this is what makes Dolly so successful. She doesn't predict where the paintings will take her. Predictability is a problem with experienced artists. They have some success then just keep doing the same thing over and over again.  So when Dolly says she is lost, it's really a sign that she is just getting to work. She isn't thinking any more, she's just looking and making the paint reproduce the inspiration that she had in her head to begin with.

And this is a very strong underpainting by Joyce.

She is at the stage where she is really making the composition work before she starts to work the colors.

A lot of growth here. Slowing down and realizing that no amount of beautiful color will overcome a drawing problem or compositional error is amazing. Great

And I just want to say again that working from observation is the hardest and most important part of this process. Photographs are important and sometimes necessary but should never substitute for what the eye sees.