Dry Painting

For me, this means absorbing with my eyes to add to my "visual encylopedia" of painting knowledge. There is a lot of beauty and information to soak up here with our recent "fog" which has flocked the trees with a coating of white powder. (There are changing light effects, new color and value relationships, snow is hugely transformative of everything.) I'm also reading about other painters through history and why they did what they did. Yesterday, I sat in front of the fire and re-read "Painters and the American West" from the 2000 Denver Art Museum Show. We all (painters included) are influenced by our cultural context, probably more than we realize. It's really interesting to see how it shows up in hindsight. I'm also reading Kevin Macpherson's book "Landscape Painting, Inside and Out." What a wonderful mentor through his books and year of experienced knowledge as a plein aire painter. Art offers such a continuous life-long learning opportunity. There is always more to discover.