The best references

I paint from life and from photos and from sketches and from memory. Sometimes the best references are bad photos — blurry, blotched, and black and white. When the references are like this we are free to interpret more about the scene. The resulting painting will be what it needs to be rather than a copy of the clear reference. It’s how I make paintings.

Sometimes I try to put photos away, too, and not look at them too much when I am in the latter part of my work. It can be super freeing to do this, and sometimes super stressful.

These marsh photos look better in this photo than they do in person. They have paint on them and the finish is all marred and inconsistent. I love painting from them, though.

A small pastel I did years ago and sold (it’s one that got away) was inspired by the drive home from my visiting my boyfriend (now husband — yay! It makes the memory even better). Mars was in the sky for a bit that summer. It was a lovely dot of warm reddish light in the deep blue night sky, visible even with a bright moon. I pulled over on a farm side road and drew a sort of painting map of the view on the back of a check deposit slip (showing my age here). Main shapes, value and color notes were made with hatch marks and pigment names. I stared out at the sky as if memorizing what I saw.

The next day I went to the studio and made a painting from that “map” and I loved the result. It was loose and minimal. The end piece represented all that I needed it to be. No details that were too busy. It was distilled to what was necessary.

And now I feel inspired to do this again!

Thanks for reading