The Seer

Masquing Removed from Screen Door Watercolor

A genius is one who can see.  The others can often “draw” remarkably well.  Their kind of drawing, however, is not very difficult.  They can change about.  They can make their sight fit the easiest way for their drawing.  As their seeing is not particular it does not matter.  With the seer it is different.  Nothing will do but the most precise statement.  He must not only end technique to his will, but he must invent technique that will especially fit his need.  

Robert Henri, The Art Spirit

Will you be a reader, a student merely, or a seer?

Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Art, to me, is seeing.  I think you have got to use your eyes as well as your emotion, and one without the other just doesn’t work.  That’s my art.

Andrew Wyeth

Before I go to work on redrawing the screen wire mesh over the light areas, and toning down the stark white masqued areas of the screen wire over the dark areas, I decided to go ahead and post the “raw” picture of the watercolor with the masquing stripped off.  There is a ton of work to do now on the screen, and I’m tired already, just thinking about it!  I’m going to have to spend a good deal of time just looking at the composition now, and how much it’s radically changed from the way it looked just a few minutes ago.  I’ve been “tagged” by my reading today, loving this idea of artist as “seer”.  During my graduate school years, I did quite a bit of reading and researching over the Hebrew prophets, the concept of Nabi, and the sense of vision.  I love the way it translates now into art.

More later.  Thanks for reading.

Tags: Andrew Wyeth, Henry David Thoreau, Robert Henri