At the Sedona Art Center in Arizona on a classroom white board I saw a sign. Fear No Art it read!

As the decade has just closed and a new one beginning, I thought it time to revisit that thought and incorporate it into my art resolutions. Happy New Year 2020!

Resolution #1: Draw more in my sketchbook!

          I've missed and neglected my sketchbook. I have a few books in my studio. Every one contains a lot of blank pages. I took one with me to Holland and Belgium and have a few nice fine line, felt tip marker sketches to show for it. My favorite, however, is a sketch I did the following year in the Louvre - visitors sitting on a bench admiring Vermeer's The Lacemaker.

          At home I've made some quick sketches of golfers on the driving range at Pinehurst Resort. Then, not far away, spectators, horses and competitors competing in dressage. And, on the porch at The Ryder Cup Lounge, people enjoying the evening entertainment. Things move quickly. No one is posing for me. This is just what is needed to capture in a few gestures the essence of what's happening. It helps to train the eye and not get mired down in detail. The basis of all good art is quality draftsmanship. It starts in the sketchbook. 

Resolution #2: Experiment with substrates and palette.        

          We are all creatures of habit. We like to stick with the known and comfortable. For me that's Mi-Teintes paper made in France by Canson. I know the texture. I know the colors and how they will interact with the pastels I choose. There's no guesswork. When I'm painting a golf hole at the "magic hour" I know to use  the color Tobacco. In the images above I left the comfort zone of my known paper substrate. I painted with pastel on a piece of canvas which had been painted on in acrylic. It was a fun creative experiment. I had to accept what I could not control or change, but work around it. I had to find a way to use the underlying image in the painting I wanted to do in pastel. It added to the more loose quality of the final pieces above. And, I used palettes not normally mine.

Resolution #3: Explore new and different subjects.         

          It was only after I moved to Pinehurst, North Carolina that I entered into the broader realm of golf, not as a long-time golfer honing a game as I thought I would, rather as an artist. I've really enjoyed stretching myself, taking the landscape and seascape genres and painting golf landscapes. I've also added Historic Homes and Architecture to may list of favorite subjects to paint. I don't know yet what new subjects I'll try this year. FEAR NO ART ... in 2020!