“A key principle for 17th-century scholars transcribing or translating classical or biblical texts was lectio difficilior potior: The reading that is stranger is stronger. If a word differs between two versions of the text you’re working on, you should actually choose the one that seems to make less sense. That surprising word choice is likelier to have been the original author’s meaning, because it’s likelier that a us copyist, translator, or (eventually) typesetter replaced a surprising word with one that was more predictable than vice versa. The wisdom was: Don’t let an easy, commonsensical option erase a unique and potentially more interesting and challenging statement.”
Robert N. Watson , “The Odd Over the Obvious“, Slate
Choose the one that seems to make less sense. The colour, the brushstroke. Make a painting more visually intriguing by not using the predictable choice.
It doesn’t have to shout; let it be a whisper that is heard when someone looks more slowly. In a painting with clean (straight-from-the-tube) colours, have some bits where you’ve mixed the colours. In a painting with mixed muted colours, have a little clean (unmixed) colour.
Allow individual lines and brushstrokes to be read, to remain visible and show “the hand of the artist”. Don’t smooth and overblend into bland visual sameness.
Seeing art reproduced as small photos tightens up the details, hiding textures and mark making. If you can’t see paintings in real life, have a look on museum and gallery websites that let you zoom in to a level you couldn’t do in real life without upsetting a gallery guard. Such as the National Gallery in London and Rembrandt.
Lovely painting. You are so true and inspiring. Thank you.