The really challenging stuff only happens after you lay the first stroke. For now, there are a few truths, not rules but truths that are important to think about.

Learning the technique of painting is easy, learning the poetry of the language takes more time to absorb and master.  Poetry starts when you understand your aesthetic (who is the artist at your core) and then analyzing the areas of your thinking that are not in line with you.

This is concept.

Concept for your individual paintings, that are the building blocks of the concept for your body of work. Concept is your compass and the only measure for your decisions with brushstroke, colour, contrast and complexity. Concept is your map in your conversation with your paint. When you have finished here, head over to the concept workout.

Basic points to contemplate – no matter where you are in your development

• There are no rules in the poetry of painting but there are truths. Balance it, find the sense in it and work within the context of your intentions and the painting.
• You are 20%, the paint is 30% and the viewer is 50%
• You are not the Boss you are the editor
• Every part of the painting is relative to the whole
• Decisions need to be made in context, don’t isolate them
• Let the other human in the 3 way relationship do the work
• Keep flicking between the general and the specific. Lay down in the specific and then flick to the general to understand impact. Assess from the general and then execute in the specific
• Work and think in cycles
• One brushstroke is always better than 2
• Constantly wipe your brush
• Load your brush well
• Do 3 strokes and then reload
• Place your colour in 3 places: the primary place and then look for an excuse to use it in 2 other places
• Always look to see if you can finish your stroke after where you normally would
• Allow your brushstrokes to break over each other
• Don’t fix, this is a conversation and everything is part of the conversation
• Don’t fill, only deal with areas when it is time to because you have something to say
• When you are stuck, break down or make a change. Stuck is silence in a conversation so start a new topic.
• Be patient and build your toolbox
• Build and destroy and when you think you have finished, make a conscious decision to destroy at least one more time.
• Think about the 2d surface in terms of moulding and carving

Starting a painting

Read some of the articles below or drop into one of the groups to ask questions and to go deeper.