-Technique Breeds Fear-

     Boldness has power.  And I fear that I fell into a trap of analysis paralysis through my study of technique that cut away from my boldness.  But here's the difficulty that I have with it:  I do believe that having those techniques in my toolbox helps immensely, but at what point does it become a hinderance?  Well, I believe that it's starting to hinder me, even at my young age.
       The picture to the left was taken in my studio garage that I've been painting in since graduation.  I just went through some of my old paintings and found these two fairly large paintings.  The painting on the left is a Caravaggio mastercopy that I did about 6 years ago and the one on the right is a self portrait from maybe 5 years ago.  I pulled these paintings out and was dismayed to find that they have some real power to them.  I didn't care about any specific technique or anything.  I just wanted to paint a large self portrait in a classical attire and to do a caravaggio mastercopy.
       What frightened me about it was that I may have lost something.  But I know that if I did it once, I can do it a thousand times.  But that's what brings me to a conclusion "Technique Breeds Fear"  technique by itself is perfectly good to learn, but when techniques mix,  you tend to lose yourself and become fearful.  And I think that's because technique is limitation.  It is a fence that needs to be broken before it closes in on you.

     Be yourselves and paint earnestly.

---