Spinning Straw into Gold

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

Twin Silos 24 x 24” Oil ©Douglas Fryer

With all the interest in plein air painting today, it can appear that studio painting has lost favor with landscape painters as a serious pursuit. Our recent Voices of Experience interview with Douglas Fryer reminds us that this is far from the case.

Serious studio painting is alive and well. Although plein air painting is often inspired by an entertaining scenic subject, studio landscape painting can require that the artist delve more deeply to find the essence of his or her subject - that which moves him emotionally. That emotional response may come from a more commonplace subject, perhaps not, in and of itself beautiful in a conventionally scenic way.

The challenge of “spinning straw into gold” first requires that one be able to recognize beauty in the commonplace, even mundane subject. We must be able to articulate what about this world around us we find relevant, interesting or moving. Only then can we set off…