Saying More With Less When Painting.

I am a 70’s and early 80’s rock music fanatic, yet surprisingly my very favorite is the country/western song “Amarillo By Morning”, sung by George Strait... Saaayyy waaaa??

Why do I like this song so much? I believe it has a strong correlation with artwork and painting. I love that it’s simply 5 stanzas, and within these five lines, it tells a complete story. A full movie if you will. It shares a complete idea and this is what your painting should do - tell a story. It’s such a simple song. In the two minutes and 17 seconds it takes to play, it conveys a personal lifetime. The story it tells is everything you need to know in the fewest words.

I live for rodeo.

As Mark Twain famously said (and I’m paraphrasing) “I’m sorry this letter is so long. If I had more time, I would have written you a shorter letter. He says the most with less.

One of the hardest things to learn in painting is how to edit out the unimportant stuff. It takes more time to say less than you think and to pare things down to where they need to be to get to the essence of what you’re trying to say. Anybody can write longer and longer and explain everything but more bla, bla, bla results in the message getting lost, just like I’m doing here...

How do you explain something in the fewest words possible? Poetry is art in the written form. A

painting in words, usually very few words.

How do you tell a story with just the right amount of information to resonate to the guts of what

you’re trying to say? If we can visualize this before we hit the canvas, then we will be able to lay down marks to the simplest form, leaving no clutter and no chaos, and saying just what needs to be said.

There could be possibly a zillion ways to edit things in a photo or a painting. Besides the easy one like a bad memory, here are three quick ways to help you get there.

If you have a very busy photo and need to distill it down, try putting a piece of tracing paper over it. This will veil some of the details and help you decide what should be in and what gets left on the cutting room floor.

Here now, for your enjoyment, is a busy boat photo and the same with tracing paper over it:

You can see how much detail is lost, making it difficult to choose who stays in and who is out.

Here it is once again...

USE A BIG BRUSH.

You can’t paint fleas with a big brush. Start with a big brush and paint the dog. Work to a smaller brush near the end and add a few fleas. That BIG brush will help you simplify all the background noise and eliminate detail.

Take out the “and”.

If you describe what you are about to paint with the word “and”, you’re in trouble already. “It’s all

about the mountain and the stream”. Worse yet, it’s all about the mountain and the stream and the tree on the left and the gopher at the bottom, and, and, and...

And will kill you. It’s either the mountain or the stream. No “ands”.

Robert Genn once said, ‘One needs to write a haiku about your idea for a painting before you start. This will distill your ideas down to a few essences. A simple three-line, 5-syllable, 7-syllable, 5-syllable poem.’ If you can’t say what you want about your painting in those simplest terms, then you don’t know what you’re painting and you will over-paint and your work will be confused.

Most songs or poetry, in their essence, are a cut-and-dried version of a thought. Paintings should also be read this way. Tell me your thoughts. Don’t just show me objects but tell me about the light, the air, the feeling.

Here are two haiku’s about this sailboat photo that will help me. I couldn’t remember if this was

morning or evening so I did both.

Morning's gentle hush

Sailboats sleep, misty veil lifts

Calm's stillness remains

Golden light descends

Sailboats gently go to sleep

Peaceful harbour dreams

Don’t laugh, I’m no Wadsworth... But you can see how this helps you get to where you may want the painting to go.

I present to you now,

Alan Jackson singing the George Strait song ‘Amarillo by Morning’.

Why am I showing another singer singing this song rather than the original singer? It’s just an

appreciation thing. Jackson has 35 number 1 hits to his credit and says this could be the greatest song ever written... yup, I agree. Takes one to know one. I just love the appreciation of an artist for another artist’s talent.

I love that we all boost each other up and praise each other’s work. I love all art. I love all styles of art. I love the diversity and the difference of everybody. This is why art is real and will always be important in the world.

Amarillo by mornin'

Up from San Antone

Everything that I got

Is just what I've got on

When that Sun is high

In that Texas sky

I'll be buckin' at the county fair

Amarillo by mornin'

Amarillo I'll be there

They took my saddle in Houston

Broke my leg in Santa Fe

Lost my wife and a girlfriend

Somewhere along the way

But I'll be lookin' for eight

When they pull that gate

And I hope that

Judge ain't blind

Amarillo by mornin'

Amarillo's on my mind

Amarillo by mornin'

Up from San Antone

Everything that I got

Is just what I've got on

I ain't got a dime

But what I've got is mine

I ain't rich

But Lord, I'm free

Keep these brushes swinging!

Your friend in art,

Doug.

PS.

Totally hard to write about saying less when there is so much to say.