Monday, March 16, 2015


WHY I'M GLAD I CANNOT PAINT LIKE CAROL MARINE

I discovered the exquisitely simple and purely colored paintings of Carol Marine on eBay. I must confess that I suffered a bout of jealousy, since she was selling far more consistently than I was. Her small delights brought in more bucks, too.

Convincing myself that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”, I bought a supply of 6” x 6” canvases and set up an arrangement of cherries and a blue teapot and had at it. In fact, I “had at it” quite a few times. Somehow the colors were never as clean, the planes were not as well thought-out, the drawing was not as precise, and a number of other qualities were missing. I soon returned to painting my own subject matter, my way.

Still not satisfied, and after studying the work of many artists, I have finally fallen into a method more suited to me. It seems to reflect the way I see the world, as complicated and imprecise, as full of the joys of beautiful color and mysterious shadow, as precise and imprecise all at one time. 

And all because I cannot paint like Carol Marine. Thank you, Carol.