Paco’s Aunt, Phases 4 & 5

One of the many things I learned from my students during the years I taught classes in watercolor, figure drawing and oil painting was that often the biggest obstacle the students faced was their own fear of making mistakes. It seems natural that we want to impress a teacher, to get her or his approval. So we draw and paint the best we can and yet we discover that we are more apt to create mistakes and messes than artworks we can be proud of. Often my attempts to console students who were struggling (without exception, all were struggling at some level!) were successful, especially when I used baseball as an example. “If you get a hit once every three times you step up to the plate, you are considered a superb player. But this means you have failed two out of three times! How do you accept such failures? This is a question only you can resolve.”

Keeping messes and mistakes in mind, here are the latest phases in my transformation of Paco’s Aunt. Into what, you wonder? Well, I wonder too. But the deeper I wander into the woods, the more it seems that the painting is not about about her being any “thing.” It’s more about her having been, and now becoming . . . I’m hoping to answer questions, resolve mistakes and have a finished painting within a week or ten days. Thanks for your patience.

Meanwhile, I offer these latest changes for whomever might need some encouragement. If a painting is not a struggle, then what’s the point? Aren’t our imaginations always prodding us ahead of ourselves and our skills as artists always lagging behind? Isn’t this is just life, totally normal?