Hello 

Last week this newsletter focused on inspiration and in return my classes inspired me to talk about Subject Matter for this week's newsletter. This is the question that always goes through artist's head, what should I paint? Read below for my answer!

Do you belong to an art association/club that is looking for a demonstrator, workshop instructor or judge.... look no further, I am available and looking for new places to demonstrate and teach. You can give your organization my Email BeckerArt@gmail.com or my website www.davidrbecker.com and I am willing  to contact them if you need me to contact them. 

Please feel free to forward my newsletter to any artist friends you know that would like to get this informative newsletter each week.

It's a Holiday at the end of this week, but Thursday and Saturday classes are happening.... see you there!

Anything is Paintable!

David

What should I paint? This is one question that many of my students ask and my answer is always the same... "Paint what you love and know a lot about". 
By painting what you love and know you will have a much more enjoyable time learning and painting, and in the end these painting will have real meaning to you when you are finished.
Knowing your subject matter is a big help when creating a painting. If your photograph reference of the subject matter doesn't do your scene justice, this is when knowing your subject matter helps you to convey what the photo can't convey.
If you love horses, paint horses, if you love growing a garden, paint your garden, it's that simple!

When I say paint the things that you love and know, some find that difficult because they haven't seen the subject matter they love and know painted that much before. That problem has a good and bad side to it. The bad is that you will have to come up with a style and composition for your subject matter, because you will not be able to look to other artists/masters and see how they handled the subject matter. The good is that you will be coming up with a style and composition for a subject matter that hasn't been painted before.This is the way to become an artist known for painting a certain style and subject matter. That is why it is a good thing that everything is paintable.

Anything can be made into a painting, and just because you may have not seen something painted before doesn't mean it can't or shouldn't be painted. It means that you have a great opportunity to come up with subject matter that you will be known for, which is what I think most artists are looking to achieve.

Many of the paintings shown in this newsletter this week, for instance, the Lock, a police officer,a boat and motor or simply a small tree, may be somewhat different and not your normal landscape or cityscape, but it demonstrates how anything can be a painting and if this is a kind of subject matter you know and love, then you should take it to the next level and paint a lot of that subject matter. paint it and make it yours.

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