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Hi Patty, I'm looking forward to coming to Cleveland and working with you and the other students. It's going to be an awesome workshop and I have some exciting new materials with which to inspire and educate.
One of the things I try to focus on, when I paint, and try to convey to my students, is that the only time a painting needs to look good is when the last stroke goes down. I think the expectation of having something look good every step of the way is very unrealistic and can be crippling. I'm sorry you've be having that problem.
Today there is tremendous pressure to have things come to fruition immediately, and I'm talking about every aspect of life, not just making art. Unfortunately, that 's not the way a fine painting comes to pass. A quickly painted alla prima painting may present a certain spontaneous charm, but a refined masterpiece, the kind of painting that you aspire to create, is a horse of another color.
A major problem today, as I see it, is what I call the "Sargent Syndrome," the common misconception that one can create a masterpiece: 1, 2, 3. This couldn't be further than the truth. Sargent built his paintings up in layers, as evidenced by his unfinished portrait of Edward Wertheimer, which I have posted below. Sargent just made it look as though his paintings were done in one sitting
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