When creating a painting, especially a complex painting, remember you are writing a story. Just as a child, when you didn’t think in words, you can think of an entire story in just pictures. And in this story there are many little nuances that you will appreciate as you are painting. In order to compose a painting well, an artist should know every little stroke of the brush and what it is saying in the story. If for instance, you are creating a little landscape. Instead of just thinking, well, there’s a tree, a fence and a mountain, think of it in more detail, but now we are adults, think of it in words and pictures, it makes it easier to visualize. Write it out in your mind as if somebody was telling you a detailed story. This is how to fully enjoy making a painting. There was a beautiful sky above a purple mountain. Really? What color was the sky? The sky was purple and yellow, and on fire, and the clouds would catch the colors (wink). This technique also enables the minimal-object artist (like me) to paint more complex situations and stories.

There is a ethereal mystery that comes to painting. And this mystery lead to many, many painstaking writings on topics throughout art history. These topics are broken down into categories like “How To Landscape Paint,” “How to Paint a Portrait” and “How To Paint a Still Life.” But once you learn the rules of painting, you will never again need such books. Once you learn the rules you will be able to know how to break them to benefit your paintings as long as you remember them.

When creating a painting, especially a complex painting, remember you are writing a story. Just as a child, when you didn’t think in words, you can think of an entire story in just pictures. And in this story there are many little nuances that you will appreciate as you are painting. In order to compose a painting well, an artist should know every little stroke of the brush and what it is saying in the story. If for instance, you are creating a little landscape. Instead of just thinking, well, there’s a tree, a fence and a mountain, think of it in more detail, but now we are adults, think of it in words and pictures, it makes it easier to visualize. Write it out in your mind as if somebody was telling you a detailed story. This is how to fully enjoy making a painting. There was a beautiful sky above a purple mountain. Really? What color was the sky? The sky was purple and yellow, and on fire, and the clouds would catch the colors (wink). This technique also enables the minimal-object artist (like me) to paint more complex situations and stories.