(217) "Hi! It's so great to see you!"
6 x 8, oil
private collection
I knew this jovial group of twenty-somethings would make an interesting figure painting, but once I studied my photos, I realized that the shapes created by the late afternoon shadows were the real story. Fun stuff.
And as I noted the interesting shapes today, I was thinking about the Magic Eye books that were all the craze in the 90s. At first you think you see the image on the page, but the more you look (really look) - a shift occurs, and a "hidden" image appears that simply wasn't there before. I suspect that learning to see when painting is quite similar. It is a concept available to everyone, but can't really be taught, only discovered by covering miles and miles of canvas. Some "see" right away, while others never seem to make that "shift"...but one thing for certain, once you get it, you never view anything the old way again. Then, the quest becomes how to best express it - a lifelong journey.
Here are a few people who "got it"...
"The question is not what you look at, but what you see"...H.D. Thoreau
"The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see"...Ayn Rand
"The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer"...Edward R. Murrow
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes"...Marcel Proust