How did you learn to paint?
I was twelve when I became a plein air painter. I didn’t know it, but my fate was signed, sealed, and delivered to a gallery that one summer day. Visiting my grandmother at a tiny family cabin near Shaver Lake, California, I was restless and looking for something to do. My grandmother told me to find something I wanted to paint. (After I had children, I realized she was so smart - giving me something to keep me occupied all afternoon!)
I still remember the smell of pine needles and the muffled sound of my footsteps beneath the Sequoias. With my eyes on the ground, I searched for something. And there was a little pinecone…
Returning to the cabin, I saw that Grandma had set out a small canvas and squirted white, blue, yellow, and red oil paints onto a small palette. She gave me one brush, showing me how to mix the paints. That was how I started learning to paint.
A decade later, waiting for my young kids to finish story time at the library, I wandered among the shelves. Just as I’d found the pinecone, I found art books. And that was how I learned to paint, too: by reading, then testing everything I learned on the canvas. Those books on the “old masters” (Cezanne, Rembrandt, Monet, Cassatt…) and many art instruction books by current painters taught me the rules of painting.
From this type of study, I learned about the Golden Mean and the proportions of composition on a canvas. The books taught me color theory - the interplay and relationships between colors. They taught me dynamic symmetry, about the use of line and shape to create movement in a painting. I learned about light and dark shapes, relative values, and the effect light has on color. More recently, I learned that emotions affect what we “see” and how our brains interpret color, light, shape, value, pigment, reflected light. There is no end. I am still learning to paint today.
Because I learned and experimented with all of these “rules,” they became second nature to me. Those "rules" showed me why my colors, shapes, and compositions looked “off”… and how to fix any of that. If it seems to my students that I paint with an ease and confident flow, it’s because of this practice, practice, practice. It was really: try, try, try, fix, fix, fix. So, in all my teaching, I emphasize the importance of time spent painting what you learn. My "Pro Advice" on learning to paint is to go back to these basics.
There are times I get the impression that “rules” have been tossed out completely in favor of “painting what you feel.” Both are important and matter in your work. I believe it’s a mistake to turn our backs to “rules.” Instead, let’s bring back the “rules” and see them for what they are: tools to be used as important foundational information that helps you pull your painting together - in the same way learning construction is important for building a house.
My advice to you, wherever you are in learning to paint, is to take classes, read, watch instructional videos and learn the basics of putting a painting together. At the same time, remember that rules are really just tools. Like hammers and saws, they help you build the "house" but YOU determine what the end result looks like. Your experiences and beliefs -- plus your time spent painting, painting, painting -- will all shape the development of your work. Lean on this experience and knowledge, too. Trust yourself and what you’re learning.
And most important — keep painting!
~ Anita
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