Weekend with the Masters IV

Yesterday was the Color Workshop with Dan Pinkham - nothing short of amazing! He demo'd for us and sent us on our way to paint at San Juan Capistrano Mission. Talk about a piece of heaven for painting! The gardens and ponds are gorgeous, the structures are aged, rigid, comforting. As instructed (and now part of my process), we wandered the grounds with a sketchpad in hand, writing the thoughts and feelings that came to mind as we searched for something to connect with. 80% of your vision is peripheral, the decisions we make about color come from this part. Only 20% is focused vision and that part of the brain sees value and shape, things we need to survive. Dan taught us to start being aware of the peripheral, of training our brains to see and interpret something we have most likely abandoned in our lives. All of this is bringing the unaware, the subconscious to the surface to question, study and make intentional. Then we were instructed to find the largest dark mass and the medium value in that mass. Start comparing and finding the difference in those masses. From there, it really is about comparisons - between color, temperature, value. I don't want to explain his workshop in too much detail because EVERYONE should take it and only Dan can truly explain his thought process, but it's a lesson in DISCIPLINE of the mind and decision making. It will be so hard to absorb all this into my own work, but I am determined to awaken my eyes - how I see! Only then can I truly speak MY voice and that is exactly what every artist should do. There is only one of you - your experience, your sensitivity, your soul!