Rocks and Foam

Rocks and Foam, oil, 9 x 12, $270, SOLD

Foam is tough.  I thought it was really funny when the master teacher, who had won a prize for an ocean scene that had probably taken him a month, was done with a lovely 2 hour demo, which showed brilliant understanding of color…and a couple women  in the workshop were upset because he didn’t show how to paint foam in exquisite detail.  He tried to explain (in Chinese, with his wife translating) that a detail of foam would not make sense on a small demo piece, but they would not be satisfied and kept insisting (nagging) about the foam! One even said, “Go ahead and ruin your painting…we want to see the foam!”  I have often wished that people would hire me to teach painting workshops…but then again, I would’ve been fully exasperated by these women.  (One of them never returned…not sure if it was the foam thing, but I think it was.)  It’s amazing to me that people, even people who paint, are so obsessed with details.  To me, (uh, obviously) this is just not what it is about.  All that said, painting foam is a bitch!

The instructor reiterated today that I paint like Picasso…this time I asked pointedly: “Is that good or bad?”  He thought about it for a moment and said “good.”  He was highly amused by my crazy style, kind of cracking up as he looked over some of my decisions…he was a really nice guy so I don’t think he was being mean…I think he was truly just amused…it was kind of nice after suicidal thoughts floated through my mind at one point during the  challenging painting.  BTW, this is not the painting.  I will post that one tomorrow.