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April 12, 2005
Learning to forget
Or, to put it another way: unconsciously adopting learnt techniques.
I’ve got to know how to do it, for my own piece of mind. The mechanic in me demands the knowledge. But then the artist in me screams to let go, get into the groove, relax in the moment [heaven forbid, even enjoy it] and just paint.
When you’re four you just paint. There: “MUMMY,” he says, pointing to a mass of squiggles on the page. And he has no doubt that it is his mother. And it is.
Then he looks up, goes to school and notices the apparent perfection of the world around him and suddenly he can’t draw Mummy any more.
Picasso said he spent years and years trying to draw again like a child. The innocence and certainty are pure expression. Though it is hard to justify the squiggles when you’re older. “He should know better!” He knows too much already.
I fall foul of technique all too often, and need distractions [see below] to help me forget and just get on with the business of seeing and making marks.
Posted by john at April 12, 2005 11:02 AM
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