The Road Artfully Traveled

A painting in progress that's undergone many changes with more to come
©Theresa Grillo Laird-oil on canvas - 24x36

One of my favorite things about a road trip, is exploring the unexpected side paths. The restored village that lies down a little traveled road in a tranquil valley, or the cliff top hiking trail in a woods full of golden light would never be found driving form A to B in the fastest way possible. My heart smiles remembering the sights that have filled my artist's well that I'd have missed if I didn't allow for exploration.

A painting in progress brings the same expectation of discovery. To watch a painting unfold under the brush with no demand of what it's supposed to become, is pure joy! What magical effects emerge so effortlessly! On the other hand, wrestling with a painting and with the pressure of measuring up to some preconceived notion of what it should look like, or what you should be able to do, can make you feel like you never want to pick up your brushes again.

The next time you you're ready to fling your painting into the bushes, take a deep breath and remember what a very talented artist told me-  painting is a great way to experience life! 
Embrace the experience!

Channeling the Greats

©Theresa Grillo Laird-  Coastal Colors - oil on canvas - 9 x 15
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The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that state that makes art inevitable. - Robert Henri

There is no one like you, and there will never be any one just like you, so there's no reason not to be original. - Sergei Bongart

Only mediocre persons are always at their best - Somerset Maugham

Painting is easy when you don't know how, but very difficult when you do. - Edgar Degas

The only time I feel alive is when I'm painting. - Vincent van Gogh

There will always be a barrier between what I see and what I am able to portray. This barrier keeps bringing me back to the canvas, carrying on a never ending desire to express, in paint, what moves me inside. - Scott L Christensen

I come back dissatisfied - I put it away, and when I have rested a little, I go back and look at it with a kind of fear. Then I am still dissatisfied, because I have that splendid scene too clearly in mind to be satisfied with what I've made of it. But I find in my work an echo of what struck me. - Vincent van Gogh

It may have been accidental but you knew enough to let this alone. The intelligent painter is always making use of accidents. - Charles Hawthorne

A picture is a work of art, not because it is "modern" nor because it's "ancient", but because it is a sincere expression of human feeling. - John F Carlson

Art is, after all, only a trace - like a footprint which shows that one has walked bravely and in great happiness. - Robert Henri

If you're any kind of artist, you make a miraculous journey, and you come back and make some statements in shapes and colors of where you were. - Romare Bearden

Bring something new, something beautiful and something filled with light into the world. - Ross Bleckner

Why shouldn't art be pretty? There are enough unpleasant things in the world. - Pierre Auguste Renoir

Go and see what others have produced, but never copy anything but nature. You would be trying to enter into a temperament that is not yours and nothing that you would do would have any character. - Pierre Auguste Renoir

It takes two to paint. One to paint, the other to stand by with an axe to kill him before he spoils it. - William Merritt Chase

If you begin with the middle tone and work up from it toward the darks so that you deal last with your highest lights and darkest darks, you avoid false accents. - John Singer Sargent

One can only truly be happy by being a painter. - Joaquin Sorolla