So the third assignment in Louise Fletcher’s course was talked up as something extremely difficult—particularly mentally. I texted my mother-in-law, who has been an art mentor for me, always challenging me to try new things, and asked her if assignment three was to paint with your nondominant hand (which she has had me do). She laughed very hard.
Turns out, that was not the assignment. The assignment was to paint something deliberately ugly. Something with colors that clash. I didn’t get the feeling she meant “paint an ugly thing” she meant make choices that you think will lead to an ugly painting.
I was like, “Oh, that’s not so bad!”
My week was getting busy, so I couldn’t work on it right away, and I still haven’t watched the Q&A session, but I mean to.
Because when I finally tackled it…I failed.
I mean, I made choices I thought would lead to an ugly slap-dash piece of work……but it came out quite good.
It’s not my usual.
But it’s nice to look at.
I’m curious to watch her Q&A about this assignment, but my takeaway so far is that it is more difficult than I thought to “mess up” a piece.
Sure, I have *plenty* of works that don’t come out how I want and—training the eye and hand to draw is still the biggest challenge, and sometimes I really recoil from how a thing ends up, but it’s never the end of the world.
And somehow a green ocean and a pink sky kinda look good, so it’s always worth a shot.
Yup, I agree. It's not my taste, but it's not ugly. So I'm with Sara, try again. :)
That is the opposite of ugly. It's jarring but cool. Sorry, try again. :)