A Painter’s Obsessions

"Orange Crush" Oil on canvas 6" x 6" © 2009 Marilyn Fenn — “Orange Crush” Oil on canvas 6″ x 6″ © 2009 Marilyn Fenn

For the past year or two, I’ve been thinking a lot about what really matters to me as an artist. What matters most…and what doesn’t?

Let me start with a list, and if all goes well, I will explore these issues in depth over the coming weeks:

Color
Color
Color
Form
Shape
Movement
Dimension
Texture
Surface quality
Playfulness
Seriousness

OK, well, there’s probably more, but these are the things that come easily to mind.

Regarding color: you may ask, is that a typo? It’s on the list 3 times!

Not a typo. Color: to me, it’s that important. The particularity of one color. The relationship of that color to the color adjacent to it. The overall sense of a painting based on the amounts of each color, their saturation, their proximity to each other. There are a million things to consider when regarding color!

What do you think? If you’re a painter, what’s on your list of obsessions? If you’re an art lover, what do you look for in a painting?

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