Daily Sketch: Art Is Something Else

Today's daily sketch of Robert Genn

Today's sketch was inspired by the Painters Keys weekly email that arrived in my inbox this morning entitled, "Signature Moves". 

The Painters Keys twice-weekly letter began in the winter of 1998 by artist Robert Genn, while on a family sojourn in Southern Spain.

"Robert Genn started with five recipients on his email list – artists he knew might accept an epistolary studio friend. Soon, requests trickled in to be added to the list, and he came to understand the idea of a Brotherhood and Sisterhood of Artists – a worldwide community of creative people with a lot of the same concerns. "

Robert Genn continued to write a letter to artists twice-weekly, non-stop for 15 years.

"In the Fall of 2013, Robert Genn was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given perhaps a year to live. Along with painting, writing and organizing his archive, he asked his daughter Sara Genn if she would continue the letters for as long as they might be useful. Sara is a full-time, professional painter. who was born and grew up near Vancouver, Canada, but has lived in New York City for the past 12 years."

She agreed. Sara wrote,

"Since then, I have written every other letter, and republished weekly one of Dad’s. He calculated that if we ran all his previous letters once a week, they would last for almost 3 decades. You can read more about this in his letter, “The Bomb,” written on October 25, 2013"

I love receiving these emails in my inbox. I subscribed many years ago when Robert Genn was writing them and I continue to subscribe and enjoy rereading Robert;s republished letters as ell as Sara's like today's "Signature Moves".

If you would like to join the worldwide community of artists from over 115 countries and receive these *FREE* twice-weekly letters, you can subscribe BY CLICKING THIS LINK

 About My Daily Sketch

It was based on a photo of Robert Genn plein air painting at "Shale-splitters" on the Opabin Pass, Yoho National Park (Page 75/116). Photo by Stan Munn.

"Shale-splitters" on the Opabin Pass, Yoho National Park (Page 75/116). Photo by Stan Munn.

This quick sketch was done in pencil and then Daniel Smith's blue apatite genuine watercolour. It's a lovely colour to put down in layered washes and it worked well on the 100% cotton paper that is in my sketchbook.

Source: Website Daniel Smith's blue apatite genuine

To be an artist...

My mother and father, 

my brother and sister, 

my husband, daughter and son

always encourage(d) me and support(ed) my need to create art. 

Portrait of me in 1968
Artist: G. Williams

This encouragement and support means a lot.
It fuels my fire.

Detail: Watercolour: art journal page "Eleven"
Artist: Cindi Moynahan-Foreman

 For this, I am truly blessed and eternally grateful.

Full view (text omitted) of art journal page "Eleven"
Artist: Cindi Moynahan-Foreman

Artist Quotes

The following inspiring quotes about being an artist were found on the web. In particular, many were found on Robert Genn's Painter's Keys Art Quotes pages.

• To be an artist is to believe in life. (Henry Moore) 
• Inside you there's an artist you don't know about... (Rumi)
• We didn't choose to create art - it chose us. (Author unknown)
• Even if you are not an artist nor ever expect to become an artist, if you can learn to see like an artist, your life will forever change. (Tommy Thompson)
• We are painters first, artists always, and as such not bound by anything but our innate desire to create. (Mary Todd Beam)
• The world calls them its singers and poets and artists and storytellers; but they are just people who have never forgotten the way to fairyland. (Lucy Maud Montgomery)
• I am an artist who, for forty years / Has stood at the lake edge / Throwing stones in the lake, / Sometimes, very faintly, / I hear a splash. (Maxwell Bates)
•  It is the consistent act of painting or drawing that creates an artist - the painting is only the bi-product. (Carol Cottone-Kolthoff)
• Artists are the people among us who realize creation didn't stop on the sixth day. (Joel Peter Witkin)
• The secret to so many artists living so long is that every painting is a new adventure. So, you see, they're always looking ahead to something new and exciting. The secret is not to look back. (Norman Rockwell)
• Artists are those who have instinctively known the concept of Plato's shadow on the cave wall, and they're trying to look past the shadows to find the object standing between it and the light. (Cyd Madsen)

Quote (Unknown)

1968 Portrait framed
Artist: G. Williams