WATERCOLORS THAT ARE NOT QUITE RIGHT AND NOT QUITE DONE BY ROBERT L. HUFFSTUTTER

If there's one major truth about painting with watercolors, it is the sense the artist has that the painting is either not "quite right" or "not quite" done, two sensations that can totally ruin what could have been a fairly decent watercolor.

These two personal assessments are not restricted to the zany or psychotic artist, they are absolutely normal whether one is a Sunday painter or commercial artist. How do I know? Simple, I have been around long enough to know these facts through personal experience and through conversation with other artists. Moreover, observation is the evidence that supports these opinions. What can we do to minimize our cost of expensive French watercolor paper and increase our confidence and self-esteem?

The answer is as primary as a a set of Prang watercolor paints. Remove the painting and set it aside for several weeks. Look at it after the time lapse and ask yourself several questions. Should there be more black lines around the window sills? Do you really need to make the blonde's hair longer? And how about the biceps of the men showing off--should they be more pronounced and obvious? Should there be two more palm trees down by the beach? After pondering over these superficial dilemmas, one will usually decide that enough is enough.

Now, about the part that there's something about the work that is "not quite right." That, unfortunately, is the realization and admission that only a few people can paint like Don Kingman. If we are so naive or vain that we do not want to exhibit until we perfect our art to the heights that Kingman's art has reached, we might as well put the brushes and paints out in the garage and wait for a neighborhood sale.We must believe that although we are not as professional and prolific as artists like Kingman, we must accept our style as our own and learn to appreciate it as our contribution to the very large and sometimes hollow world of art. To continue our momentum and keep our spirits positive, we need to keep painting as many subjects and scenes as possible. Sooner or later, we will accept ourselves as being the best we can be and understand our style is unique.

We might even begin to really appreciate our work and feel a warm fondness and affection for our paintings in much the same manner as we appreciate the work of our favorite artists. There is nothing to prevent us from looking at Kingman's magnificent watercolors and hoping that in time, we will feel like we are getting better with the completion of each new and different watercolor. That is, I honestly believe, what Don Kingman believed each time he finished a painting. One fact is obvious, he knew when to sign his name to signify that it was done.

WATERCOLORS THAT ARE NOT QUITE RIGHT AND NOT QUITE DONE BY ROBERT L. HUFFSTUTTER

IT'S TOO LATE TO LOOK FOR VAN GOGH'S EAR

IT'S TOO LATE TO LOOK FOR VAN GOGH'S EAR...

By Robert L. Huffstutter

You know it's time to start painting again when you begin seeing images with black lines around them, waiting for you to add color to make them complete. Is it a primal desire or only a wish we were young enough to get out the crayons and start in on an already created image in outline form of a mouse or a pirate, making the hat a solid purple and the mouse a bright pink instead of the standard dull gray or brown? Yes. Yes to all of the questions about art. Art is part of our primordial psyche. If we were created in the image of our Creator, is it not only natural for us to want to create an image of something our Creator created? There, now that I have explained and outlined the complete history of portrait painting, landscape painting, nature painting and other related scapes, there will be someone who will ask about cartoons or religious scapes. That's the way it was in Art 101 then...and it remains the same today. Professor Knowitall, where do cartoons fit into this concise little Judeao-Christian history of art you are disseminating?
"Shut up and go sit at the back of the class," I might think, but of course I won't. It is a legitimate question that can be answered with brevity. "It is called humor, Aaron, okay? You know, you probably watched enough cartoons on Saturday mornings between the ages of two to twelve, however, that you might have used up all your humor."
Not a good thing to say to anyone, really, but do we ever run out of humor? Can we laugh too much? As I ponder this question, I look at the headlines and realize in an instant that we are living in a time that will not be remembered as the "laughing generation." And that's too bad. Bombs are not funny; wars are not funny. Crimes are absent of all humor. Maybe we need to laugh more. We might choose to laugh at the fuss the government is making over Washington's madam of erotic fantasy escorts service. If the men who used those services needed to get their minds off of demolition through aircraft collisions into buildings and mass murder, perhaps there was a shortage of escorts.building blown up by those who had no sense of humor; maybe these men and women who dialed up a fantasy just needed to escape for awhile. Sure, they could have prayed, but not everyone finds solace in prayer; sure, they could have gone to a comedy, but maybe they needed something more intense than light chuckles. So, why is the government so determined to go after the madam when they could be exerting the same energy in pursuing mad men? How did I get from coloring books to alleged prostitution in so short a time? I am a victim of my own mind, absorbing too much of the world around me. I should have been born in the mid 1800s, lived on the left bank and been a friend of Vincent Van Gogh. But he was rumored to have been a madman, so art might not be the subject to study afterall.