Thursday, January 10, 2013

Snowed In

January 10, 2013

Finished a couple studies this week. Tweaked this one over the weekend. This is "Shadow Rock Rider":





When Kathy and I were visiting Tommy and Amy in Baltimore it snowed twice. The day after Christmas I woke up to snowfall. Sat under a blanket by the window, drinking coffee and watching it stick. Really took me back to my childhood in Iowa in the early fifties. We also took a road trip and I was impressed with the farm country near Havre de Grace:





Came home last night and found a book I paid way too much for ($100) at San Patricio, New Mexico. This is a rare art book, "Wyeth At Kuerners" which features studies done by Andrew Wyeth, many of them in the snow. Got up this morning and took a crack at one just to see if I could ferret out his technique. Very subtle stuff.





So, this is not original art, but a study of a study done by Andrew Wyatt (from the book, "Wyeth At Kuerners"). I'm studying the masters here, hoping to get to some version of competence. Like most over-achievers I strive for perfection but we all know where that leads to:



"In order to go on living, one must try to escape the death involved in perfectionism."

—Hannah Arendt