
“What should preoccupy you most is not the grand panorama of the sea environment but the more artistically interesting elements such as the swirling motion of the water, the texture of the bubbles, foam, and spray, the shapes of tumbling white surf … make many drawings, one right after another, until you feel you’ve captured the water movement both in line and wash. … aim for a more ambitious kind of realism, one with higher aspirations and more enduring concerns than a simple description of the scene.”
Edward Betts, “Creative Seascape Painting”, page 60
A painting that “looks like a photograph” is achievement in terms of painting technique, skill, and practice. It’s skill to be aspired to, celebrated through the steps of its aquisition, and enjoyed doing. But it’s only part of the encyclopedia of possibilities in art, there’s still always lots more to learn about and try.
Tactile things to be done with physical materials, in paint, pen, pencil, and by a hand moving the material across a surface. Listen to graphite tickling the paper, feel the squishiness of a paint tube, the bounce in a brush. Convey the swirl of the wind, the rolling of pebbles on a shore, the squelch of wet mud grabbing hold of your feet, the gentle kiss of winter sun in a high latitude.
