Charles Hawthorne on Painting

"The Window" by Charles Hawthorne

"It is beautifully simple, painting - all we have to do is to get the color notes in their proper relation. The juxtaposition of spots of color is the only way and he who sees that the finest is the greatest man. I want you to learn to see more beautifully, just as if you were studying music and tried to get the finer harmony more and more truly all the time.

The only way to learn to paint is by painting. To really study, you must start out with large tubes of paint and large palette and not stint in any way as far as materials go. If you look into the past of the successful painter you will find square miles of canvas behind him. It is work that counts, experience in seeing color. Painting is just getting one spot of color in relation to another spot of color - after you have covered acres of canvas you will know.

Don't try to be an artist all at once, be very much of a student. Be always searching, never settle to do something you've done before. Always be looking for the unexpected in nature- you can have no formulas for anything; search constantly. I don't know a better definition of an artist than one who is eternally curious. Every successful canvas has been painted from the point of view of a student, for a great painter is always a student.

Make notes that will help fasten your conception of beauty. The more you study in the right way, the more you progress.Each day's study makes you crazy to go back and do over and do better what you did the day before.

Do studies, not pictures. Know when you are licked - start another. Be alive, stop when your interest is lost. Put off finsih as it takes a lifetime - wait until later to try to finish things - make a lot of starts. It is so hard and long before a student comes to a realization that these few large simple spots in right relations are the most important things in the study of painting. They are the fundamentals of all painting."

To be continued

(Excerpts are from "Hawthorne on Painting" by Charles Hawthorne.)