Bruce Katlin Creates And The Running Artist

Friday, January 23, 2015

New Year's Paintings

"Winter's Tale" Oil on Board

New year, new painting; renewed sense of purpose and joy and challenges.

Painting or any form of creating is like a dance: back and forth and around and around; using different parts of the brain to analyze and paint. But if you analyze too much you'll never take the next step and if you dance without stepping back you'll land on your partner's toes. I don't like analyzing, I like doing and that's okay if I just want to get lost in painting but just imagine if you were an architect and just like drawing - the results could be disastrous. 

Continuing on the Path of personal and spiritual fulfillment I sought the guidance and experience of the prolific American painter, Richard Alan Nichols and have been relearning how to be a beginner with patience. Richard is one of those very rare teacher's an art form. He's not one of those frustrated painters who turns to teaching to only because he needs to pay the rent. He truly loves to share his passion for painting and has an endless amount of energy. "Paint the squeal and not the pig!" Richard shouts out numerous times during his lessons and workshops. I could see and hear the 'pig's' squeal but wanted to learn application and implementation from eyes to brush to canvas. Richard is helping me to get there. The above pictured painting, "Winter's Tale" was inspired by a run up a Taos area mountain trail. A lot of " back and forth and around and around" was realized in the task at hand.

Because it's been said that it takes a minimum of 10,000 hours to master one's craft, I have created my own simple 10,000 Hour Clock and when I reach that goal I'll reset it and start anew.

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