The Road Not Taken

Robert Frost wrote The Road Not Taken in 1916, and in it he concludes …

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

I, like all others, have made choices.  Many choices made recently during the CoViD pandemic.  Some of those choices dealing with hobbies, or activities in which I had interest of pursuing.  One of those interests - was to determine whether or not I had any apt, ability or skill in the arts.  Specifically music and painting.  I will not subject you, at least at this point, with what can only be described as both cruel and unusual punishment, regarding my efforts at acoustic guitar, bass guitar, electric guitar or piano.  I will however use this space to document my journey into painting.

This journey came about one afternoon while watching a local Public Broadcasting Service presentation of Bob Ross’ series The Joy of Painting.

It all seemed so simple, his explanations of what to do, how to do it, and why.  But, this was not my first time at the rodeo when it comes to a skilled person of any function, making the outcome seem as easy as … well waking in the morning.  At least waking before reaching my age.

So, I thought, I will just do something quick on my own as a test - taking what I saw in this single episode to see if I could make something out of whole cloth (or canvas as it were) before jumping in whole hog. 

So without further instruction, and no artistic skill (let alone experience since 3d grade art class - which I failed in my ability to draw even a simple circle, or straight line) I present to you - my first attempt.

 What Does it Matterhorn? Entitled (By my brother)
(c) 2022 Gilbert Blankenship

Despite the obvious errors - I thought, hmm not bad.  Nothing spectacular but something that, with a little practice - I might be able to turn into something.  Finally, something I might end up being good at.

These coming posts will document my journey, and whatever pitfalls or mistakes befall me.  Starting with what might be a rather monumental plan.  My plan, is to approach this like an art course titled The Joy of Painting.  It has, over 400 lessons.  And yes, many of them are quite repetitive.  But, then again - that is called practice.

I don’t plan to recreate his paintings - but to use the concepts and ideas he presents.  I do plan to use his paintings as a general idea of what to paint but I do not intend to try and copy his paintings but rather to focus on a series of tasks for a number of paintings then move on to the next.  Sky (Clouds) for example would be a focus on the first couple paintings, then horizon, then mid ground, and finally foreground.  I would work on mountains, grasslands and water, then trees and eventually man-made objects (cabins etc). I figure this would take me through possibly season 3.  The remaining 30 plus seasons would simply be assignments to continue practicing those elements and see where it takes me.