Looking at Everyday Places with New Eyes ...
Patricia O'Brien
Over the past few weeks, I seem to be seeing places that are part of my regular routine with new eyes — with attention to composition, light, shadow, contrast. It hasn’t been a conscious effort, but more of a realization as I decided to sketch particular scenes, that I was actually drawing/painting what I saw, rather than what I was looking at. This feels like such a welcome artistic development, helping me to simplify the compositions I choose to paint — to look at a scene more in large blocks/shapes of light/dark and color. I know this is a pretty common point of instruction, but it felt like a mometous “Helen Keller moment” when I actually “got” it….