Starry, starry night, Paint your palette blue and gray, look out on a summer's day, with eyes that know the darkness in my soul*

Van Gogh on Facing a Blank Canvas: "Just slap anything on when you see a blank canvas staring you in the face like some imbecile. You don't know how paralyzing that is, that stare of a blank canvas is, which says to the painter, ‘You can't do a thing’. The canvas has an idiotic stare and mesmerizes some painters so much that they turn into idiots themselves. Many painters are afraid in front of the blank canvas, but the blank canvas is afraid of the real, passionate painter who dares and who has broken the spell of `you can't' once and for all.”
(Letter to Theo van Gogh, October 1884)

I took an Art class at ACU. We were to paint a landscape copying a picture we would find. We were to mix our own colors. I remember that I knew exactly what I was going to paint and had my brush loaded but just couldn't put my brush to the clean white art paper. My teacher strolled by and said, "Beverly, just start painting." I was afraid, but once I started painting it was like I was all alone in my experience. I loved it. My mamma framed my first painting and my teacher really liked it. I also did a sculpture of a fish. I loved that class which surprised me because of my fear of my lack of talent as an artist. I would like to paint again one day...maybe this summer.

Its scarey sometimes faced with a blank canvas..a new painting.. a new begining...I have had friends saying lately, "Beverly, just start painting." So...I think I will...

From "Vincent" by Don Mclean

posted by Beverly at 9:56 PM