{"id":6649,"date":"2013-05-06T10:06:18","date_gmt":"2013-05-06T17:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/?p=6649"},"modified":"2013-05-06T10:06:18","modified_gmt":"2013-05-06T17:06:18","slug":"what-to-paint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/2013\/05\/06\/what-to-paint\/","title":{"rendered":"What to Paint?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Classic-Saddle-115\"<\/a><\/h6>\n
Classic Saddle<\/em>, a 7th piece I painted now gracing the John and Pam Ritter home in the desert.<\/h6>\n

Here’s a question that comes up more than you might think: Since I can paint, what should I paint? It’s an odd dilemma, the challenge that comes of living a life that’s free.<\/p>\n

I realize the same question comes in the two other art forms I like to pursue: Since I can write, what should I write? When I’m asked to speak, on what should I speak? I will say I’ve learned something about how to approach this latter quandary.<\/p>\n

I tell myself to determine quickly what my topic should be, like immediately. If I entertain more than one idea I’m forever flip flopping, almost right up to the delivery. Too many choices undermine everything.<\/p>\n

I’ve also learned that the occasion itself often helps me focus. For example, when asked to speak on New Year’s Day, I knew exactly what my topic had to be: \u201cLooking back and looking forward.<\/em>\u201d*<\/p>\n

So I take the lesson from one art form and apply it to another and the answer begins to come.** It’s basically a reforming of the question: Not what to paint \u201cever and always,\u201d but what to paint \u201cright now.\u201d<\/p>\n

And right now we’re on the outskirts of Tucson, Arizona, taking a week for another of our art-making forays. Some call these vacations, and in some ways they are; we \u201cvacate\u201d our normal premises and schedules. But they’re for work, a focused time to do what we do, both as vocation and avocation. Our work<\/em> is such that we would rather bring it with us \u201con vacation\u201d than not.<\/p>\n

We’re in a lovely desert hide-away lent to us by friends who seem as pleasured to share it us as we are to receive it. The vistas are God breathed, the hills majestic and dry, the sky cobalt clear, the foliage abundant and varied . . . gnarled and delicate both. What’s not to paint?<\/p>\n

Then, inside the house I find half a dozen pieces of my own artwork, both ethnic and cowboy, that these friends purchased several years ago and I’d not seen since. I must say they look great in this setting and give yet more ideas of what to paint.<\/p>\n

So, the field begins to narrow. The occasion helps determine it, and the setting.<\/p>\n

The question is rarely what to do \u201cever and always.\u201d That one intimidates; it’s too grand, too important. The question is only what to do \u201chere and now.\u201d That’s easier . . . and really all we can handle.<\/p>\n

Now to get to it.<\/p>\n

You too.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

____________________<\/p>\n

* \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0This one is still online if anyone would like to revisit it here<\/a>.
\n** \u00a0 \u00a0It’s the same with writing, and how this piece came this morning.
\n*** Thanks for all the great comments on last week’s\u00a010-Person Portrait<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s the dilemma of the free life, what to do right now. If the question’s too big, it debilitates. But the answer is often right in our path.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6649"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6649"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6679,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6649\/revisions\/6679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}