Go to the Source First
Electronic technology has become so advanced that it allows a person to come in the back door of art to depict their subject of choice easily. Bill Anton has noticed that the more electronic steps we have between us and our subject, the more our work seems to be diminished. He believes we always need to go to the source, meaning life and out on the field. As a Christian, Bill always wants to go to the source directly through the scriptures. As a painter, Bill believes it is also important to go stand in front of your subject at the source in order to look, see, and observe. This is why painting from life is so essential. As we all know, even the best photographs tend to lie about value and color. From a trained eye, it is easy to tell which artists are working from life (or who has experience working from life) and who is painting from photographs. It can be obvious right from the beginning.
“Wyoming Conference Call,” Bill Anton, Oil on Linen
It is so important to work from life because it connects you directly to your subject. To connect to your subject, you have to be genuinely interested in what you are painting and depicting. If you are not interested in it, it is near impossible to depict that subject matter well. You want to go directly to the source and the thing that is inspiring the whole process from the beginning. Whether it is a landscape or a figure, stand out there and heave to paint from the shoulder (as Edgar Payne used to say). It can be challenging, but we know a challenge is essential to improve our paintings and ourselves. When Bill Anton first started, he wanted to be able to stand outside like the artists did 100-200 years ago and observe and paint from life. This is not to say Bill does not use photography, he uses it extensively, but you want to understand a photograph’s limitations. It is impossible to understand the limitations of photography unless you are observing the real thing from life.
Story Time: Bill remembers an instance where he was at a ranch on horseback and there were cattle coming out of a draw. He saw the beautiful russet shadows and the breast of the horse. He made a mental note of the movement and the fact he could see into the shadow and pick up nuances of color. He then told himself that all of what he saw would probably go black in the photograph. And sure enough, it did. Had Bill not been there in the field, already knowing how to portray that image accurately, he would not have been able to include those details on his canvas. From prior experience painting from life, Bill was prepared for the photograph to lie to him.
It is so easy to pick up a really great image of something that is interesting to paint and not know that the camera is essentially lying to you. This is why it is so important to be out in the field. It is hard work to paint from life vs. picking up a photograph. It takes time and physical work. But, the harder things in life are the ones that are worthwhile and this really comes out in our paintings. It all has to do with delayed gratification. It takes a long time to go outside and get proficient at painting from life to see results. Very often, young artists get frustrated with their first 20 or 30 paintings while painting from life. We must know that the process will be slow. It took Bill hundreds of paintings to get results. Painting from life truly measured your level of commitment, it can be tough! You will stick with it if you know that, down the road, it is going to pay you dividends. It certainly does, but you have to stick with it and learn it’s lessons. Don’t be in a hurry to get something in a frame and get it to a gallery. Focus on growth and going straight to the source as much as you can in order to get the results you want.
To hear more on the topic of getting out there (to the source), listen to Gabor and Bill on the Paint & Clay Podcast here.