Addenda to "Composition on Outdoor Painting" by Edgar Payne

"Breton Boats" by Edgar Payne

Edgar Payne's daughter, Evelyn, wrote an addenda to her father's book, "Composition on Outdoor Painting." Here are a few excerpts from it:

"My parents shared many basic attitudes towards art, although their styles were very different. My mother was a good teacher, articulate and well organized in terms of preparing lessons on the basic principle. My father found teaching difficult, and did not take students until the Great Depression. He taught by demonstration, and took students outdoors and made suggestions to them individually.

Both of my parents expressed exasperation with beginners who expected to go out on one or two sketching trips and come back with finished works of art. It was the process, the learning, even the struggle that was to them more important than the product. My father considered his color sketches made in the field as studies for his own use. He did not sign or sell them as a rule, although many are highly regarded today."

"A favorite story about my dad is the account of a time when he was out sketching, far from any sign of habitation. He was surprised to find a man behind him, watching. Then the man said, 'Why, that's nuthin' but puttin' on daubs!' A little later the man shook his head and said, 'But you sure gotta know where to put them daubs!' and walked away."

To be continued