04/03/2021
There's a scene in the movie Saving Private Ryan with Tom Hanks and Matt Damon. Matt Damon's character says to Tom Hanks' character (paraphrasing here):
“I can't remember their faces.”
He's referring to his three brothers, who all died in battle in World War II, which they are now in the middle of. The two men are sitting on a stoop of a crumbling building, waiting for whatever is next in battle.
Tom Hanks character says (again, paraphrasing), “That's because you have to think of them in context - in a specific situation."
This scene always stayed with me because I too have difficulty recalling someone's face unless I remember them in a specific situation. Maybe that's true for everyone?
In this same vein, I'm also not one of these artists who can just conjure up an image in my head and paint it. I'm always amazed when people can do that. But maybe they're just remembering a scene in their head (whether it's actually happened or not. That would be the magic of imagination!)
So full disclosure: while I've been painting lots of expressive landscapes over the past few months I most certainly have been using photos as references!
These are the photos I took when my hubby and then 10-year-old son and I went on a roadtrip to see the National Parks of the West in the summer of 2017, pulling along our pop-up camper.
I have been taking lots of liberties with these landscapes. Of course, you can expect that with expressive paintings anyway, but I've also been adding in extra features that weren't actually in the photo - like mountains or clouds or flowers (because I like to add pops of pink in just about any way I can get it into my art).
And that's OK! I’m not a literalist or a realist. Sometimes artists get to fib a little in what they include and don't include.
There are no rules when it comes to art - maybe some best practices 😉 - but no rules!
