There is the perspective you first learn in school when you try to draw a house that looks 3 dimensional. You learn some tricks to drawing and stick with it. Soon your grandparents are bragging to their friends how talented you are.( The first lesson in perspective then is that it draws attention )
Then there is the chapter on perspective you skip past in the first art book you actually buy. You learn it's a corner stone of realism, yet a lot of us seem to not give it the attention we should.
( Second lesson on perspective: It takes practice and study... Not the thing to put in a beginner's art book)
You discover there is one point, two point, three point, and four point perspective.
Then you start to see how Master artists have created masterpieces with it. This should inspire you, but of course we artists are sensitive creatures.
( Lesson three: Be afraid be very afraid. Perspective can be scary!)
Perspective is one of the tools artists use to trick the eye. Here's a great example on video:
I found this on a great blog piece by (Karin Wells)
(Lesson Four: on perspective: it's all about illusion )
But there is another side to perspective that every artist should know about and experiment with:
Personal Perspective
I have recently looked into this particular art lesson and thought I would share my experiment and the results.
First, you may have noticed that the posts on this blog have been rather thin lately. Well, a lot has happened in my art world . Another gallery closed, sales have not been there, my studio is starting to accumulate too many old paintings, some of which are rather large. All of this has added to the feeling that my contribution to the household has not been... .adequate.
My solution was to take on a full time (real job).....landscaping! No, not painting landscapes, working as a landscaper. You know, hauling, digging, weeding, planting, fertilizing, and wait for it.......killing dandelions. Ughhhh! The ultimate sin for a painter of flowers.
First Pick
Daily Painting from 2007
At first I thought it would all work out great. I would earn some money over the summer, get into shape, and of course paint at night. But then reality kicked in.
( Lesson One in Personal Perspective: Seeing reality is different than experiencing it.).
At 56 my old body needed a while ( several weeks actually) to... let us say , adjust, to the new regimen. My exercise before this was stepping back from the easel and walking up stairs to make tea. I must admit I am in great shape now. I have lost a lot of weight but the benefits are quickly being replaced by deterioration... I broke a tooth at lunch.
(Lesson two: Money is not all that matters)
The money ended up paying for an old truck to get me back and forth from the job and for the dentist who fixed the tooth.
My contribution to the household, I have discovered, has more to do with having the time to paint and take care of my counselor/wife, then it is to make the money.
(Lesson three: You don't get perspective unless you go out to get perspective)
Just like the illusion lesson in art, things in life aren't always what they seem. I learned I needed to get away from the painting in order to see how much I wanted to get back to it. I gained fresh ideas in what I want to express and how I want to paint.
The result : I discovered perspective is related to appreciation and gratitude. I have been wanting to try a new approach to my painting for a while. Now I clearly see what it is I want to try......and will start soon .... ....That is as soon as I have quit my day job.
I will be taking a Blogcation ( vacation from blogging) for the next month or so. Please check back in August. ... by then I will have more to share about my new approach to Daily Painting Practice!
