Keeper of the Flames
- KEEPER OF THE FLAMES - A black ink and black color pencil drawing an an 11 x 14 size coquille board. Here is another "forgotten" drawing that I found on the internet. I don't remember for whom it was done, it's another early drawing I did in the style of Hannes Bok.
There came a time when I stood in front of a painting mounted on a display tripod. To the right of it, nearby, was a small table on which all the materials needed to do an oil painting were scattered about. I also saw a postcard that featured a photo taken on an overcast day, no clouds, no sun, a long-shot picture of an ocean with a mountain range in the far distance. It was the same scene I was looking at on the painting. The woman who painted the picture stood next to me. "Well, what do you think of it?" she asked, " It's my first attempt at doing an oil painting".
I looked at the painting: the sky was painted a flat light blue, the small mountain range sitting on the ocean was a flat medium gray, and the ocean a flat medium green. There was nothing more to look at. If she were a small child I would have said "wonderful'" to make her feel good and to encourage her, but she was a mature woman, a college graduate who had taken "Art Appreciation" courses. But I should have known better than to tell her the truth because even mature, educated grownups often respond childishly to criticism. . . .
I made a costly mistake; very gently, I started by saying, "Even though you do something just for the "fun" of it, the "fun" comes from learning to do things the right way. Painting is all about making good decisions, and unfortunately, your first decision to paint the ocean on that postcard was not a good one, it has no features worth painting, not even for a first painting". Her smile turned into a frown, her lips pursed, I saw that I had annoyed her. I decided not to continue though I had a lot more suggestions to make. My mistake cost me dearly, her friendly attitude towards me has never been the same again. But I didn't lose a friend . . . she did.
That happened many years ago, and it taught me a lesson; there are times when people can't deal with honesty, or the truth, or to be told how to do something. And that includes me. So now I'm more careful about when to be honest and truthful, and when not to make suggestions.
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