"Store Bought Begonia"

(Bid On This Painting)
This will take you over to eBay

After returning from my teaching obligations in San Francisco, Mt Shasta had embraced a heat wave (if 45 degrees is a heat wave). The snow is slowly melting back but Mt Shasta is bright and white with her new winter coat. I plan to paint some stunning sunsets the next few days. This morning when I was in town, I ventured into the flower shop and was dazzled by all of the colors after seeing so much white for the past month. Inspired, I grabbed a 99-cent Begonia and raced home to paint it for you.

Artists often find that the piece they imagined in their mind is one step removed from what they create. In fact, artists spend 2 percent of their time developing the design and concept of their work of art and the remaining 98 percent of the time working to hold onto what they imagined in the first place. The masterpiece in your head is always perfect. It always has great perspective, great color and composition. However, once you complete it, you may step back and decide that you are not satisfied with the end result. The truth is that no artist is ever satisfied with what they create. At the same time that an artist is working to complete their work, their knowledge of art grows; new insights, possibilities and ideas open up, and a new vision appears. I recommend at this point you move on and save the new idea for a new work.

The secret of learning to create art is not to focus on one perfect piece every year, but to create 360 masterworks a year, and then step back and ask your self, am I satisfied?

I hope to offer more painting tips as this conversation continues.

If you have questions that you would like me to answer, please don’t hesitate to email me anytime. I welcome your feedback. Stefan_Baumann@yahoo.com