
Painting BIGGER
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[caption id="attachment_302" align="aligncenter" width="287" caption="Artist Ann Rea"]
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For many years I only painted small field studies in oils. There’s limited time available to complete a field study so consequently the canvases are small. And so for years I believed that I could only paint in a small scale if I wanted to preserve the immediacy of my subject. How did I get this rule stuck in my head? I really don’t know but it was stuck. And a large blank canvas was very intimidating.
Then for a over a year my fiancé would press me and say, “I think you should paint bigger.” And I would say, “Who’s the artist here?” But he was right. And I’m committing this to writing so that he can print it out and revel in the fact that I said, “Honey, you were right!”
One day I just dared myself to do what Monet did. I selected a subject painted in and of the natural environment and inspired by the ambient light. Then I brought it into my San Francisco beach studio and reinterpreted and refined it on a larger scale. Wala! It worked. I loved the results. I knew what to do all along. I just had to get out of my own way and challenge what I perceived to be my limitations.
Now I’m running out of space. My beautiful but intimate studio is crowded with canvases and supplies. But as I sell more and more large-scale canvases I’ll be opening my own studio and art gallery.
