How and why?

 
What I've shown so far, in the Facebook, 5 paintings in 5 days challenge.
It's Day 3.

From left to right:
Summer clouds Wallace Bridge   Now that looks good! Wonder Water Image #6
Acrylic on canvas                           Acrylic on canvas          Acrylic on canvas
40 x 40 inches                                 24 x 24 inches               30 x 30 inches
Barbara Muir © 2014                  Barbara Muir © 2015     Barbara Muir © 2015

I was thinking about how people see the other day.
I was at a family member's house and we were
debating the colour of a chair I've always
loved.  It is a true vermillion -- to the red side
of that colour.

The next day I thought that what separates
visual artists from other people is the idea of "how?"
When we look at anything, our mate, our breakfast,
our backyard, our car, our cat -- we're thinking, 'how?'
How would I paint that, or draw that?  We take
vision beyond the visual, into the realm of what
we make from what we see.  It's a delicious,
frustrating and wildly exciting way to look at the
world, and I'm enormously grateful to be captivated
by art's spell.

Right now I'm doing the 5 paintings in 5 days project
on Facebook, and it's reminding me of the many
ways I've tried to figure out the how.  I am a bit
braver now than I was a few years back.  I want to
try taking my favorite visions beyond memory
and into either a painting or drawing.

But why?  The why in my case is all about
emotion.  The look of a place, a meal, a face --
moves me to want to try a painting. At first
I might feel out of my depth, but if I keep on
going, sometimes the magic Elizabeth Gilbert talks
about in her book Big Magic takes over, and I feel
so happy to have made something new.

Have a living-for-how-and-why day.