Something Like a Cactus

Recently someone commented on one of the cactus paintings that I had posted in an online forum.  His comment was, "This looks something like a cactus."  I immediately laughed and began to type a funny reply before I realized he may not have been joking! This thought took me by surprise.  In my world, everyone knows what a cactus looks like; in the international audience of the internet, what is normal to my eyes is not necessarily normal to everyone.

From my large sketch journal, this colored drawing expresses the harshness I find on the desert floor.  

For many years, I worked from watercolor instruction books. Robert Wade, Edward Wesson, James Fletcher-Watson, Claudia Nice and many other authors have written excellent books on using watercolor that have in their turns had influence on me.  I worked very hard to understand their techniques and incorporate them into work of my own.  I usually had frustrating results and ended up feeling that their levels of skill were beyond my reach.

Here, mountains aren't always soft and hazy shapes; instead they have hard surfaces and craggy forms.  

What I didn't realize was that what worked for where they lived and painted didn't always translate well to the harsh light and deep shadows of where I was trying to paint.  An English watercolor sky is a lovely thing, but it doesn't translate to the intensity of my world.  No wonder I had so much trouble and frustration.

It just goes to show that we can only learn so much from the work of others.  Each of us has to find for ourselves how to make art that expresses A. what we picture in our own minds and B. what we see in the differing worlds around us.  That is part of what makes looking at the art of others so fascinating- the diversity of painters, locations and styles is an endless array of possibilities.  I love painting!