[Marvin Mattelson]

Sharon and Michael,

You put me in the uncomfortable position of being agreed with. My fallback approach has always been to see what others are doing and look in the opposite direction. But I do kind of like the fuzzy warm feeling I got reading your words. Strange, huh!

But seriously, I feel it is supremely important to have the benefit of being guided by a knowledgeable teacher whose approach is based on sound broad based principles. One can personalize and customize one's approach once a wholistic understanding of the painting process has been achieved.

One should be able to paint directly before one attempts to glaze. One should be able to control a limited amount of colors before one expands one's palette geometrically. One should understand how to make a ball appear round before one tries to paint a head. One should be taught to see accurately before one attempts to manipulate and interpret what lies before them.

I may be missing something here, but haven't those who are calling for us to "step up" and demo been trained in schools, workshops, videos and ateliers themselves? Is there someone out there who has developed solely by even reading only books?

Wait! That's exactly how I was trained after 4 wasted years at the Philadelphia College of Art. I developed into one of the country's leading realistic illustrators, painting covers for Time Magazine and ads for IBM, yada, yada, yada. I was blessed with good instincts and a lot of talent and taught myself to copy photos with the best of them.

I knew however there was a severe lacking of understanding on my part, so I searched out until I was fortunate enough to find John Murray, a former student of the late Frank Reilly. John was able to fill in the blanks as to why I was doing what I was doing. It was the beginning of my transition from a renderer to a painter.

I studied with John part time for ten years, at a huge cost, taking away what little precious time I had to spend with my family. I gave up one day a week to paint from life under his supervision. In the beginning it was embarrassing, because everyone in the class knew of my reputation, but I had a goal in mind so I persevered. The first under painting I did looked like Mrs. Gumby! As time went by I improved dramatically. When John got called for jury duty he asked me to run the class, although there were students that had been studying with him longer. That was a great honor.

So I