There Are No Original Thoughts...Or So I Thought

When I got to painting studio last night, and Noel glanced at my amaryllis painting, he said, "That looks like a Daniel Sprick painting!". I was dumbstruck with dismay. After having copied a Cezanne painting twice and having it bought up right away, I swore never to copy another artist's work. It just isn't why I paint.

So, to have him immediately jump on the subject matter as being dirivitive of another artist's work made me so unhappy that I was unable to get started on anything for a good half hour.

Now that I've seen the amaryllis in question, the only thing I can say is that it's an amaryllis. I don't think that anyone would mistake my composition or style for anything resembling Daniel Sprick's work, phew! http://www.gallery1261.com/html_artists/sprick/amaryllis.htm

So, once I'd squeezed out some paint colors on my palette, I spent more time than I wanted looking at two photographs that I'd brought, in hopes that being in a different location would help me decide which one was worthy of a painting.

The one I chose is a sunset over Florence that my friend, Lynda, took while visiting her daughter last summer. Even the tiny thumbnail photo of it grabbed my eye, so I knew that it would make a good composition. Noel agreed and said the words I've been looking for...he said that if I work it right, this painting will sing! Not only that, this feels so much more original than anything I've done in a while, so I'm super stoked to have this challenge ahead of me. Stay tuned.

I thought I'd share the blocking in with you. Initially, I started with way too much detail, which is a big flaw of mine. Noel was sitting across the room and suggested that I just block in the two big shapes and get the values right, before moving on to the detail. What I managed to paint last night was what I could see in the thumbnail, so I know I'm on my way! Woot!