Step Above and some Brianisms

acrylic 24 x 48 inches

At the Brian Atyeo workshop, he came up with some pretty good 'Brianisms'. Some are funny but they all carry truth. These are only a few.

1) 'This painting is better than it looks'
2) 'If you can't meet your expectations, then lower them'
3) 'Light doesn't know edges'
4)  'activate early marks'
5) 'Sometimes it's not putting in the darks, it's putting in a light to activate a dark'
6) 'Hang your composition over a large dominant shape'
7) 'Explore what you don't know'
8) 'Don't go into a brush stroke with a little paint and expect a big change'
9) 'We see tone (value) first ,then color.'
10) 'When you make a change in a painting, make sure it has an effect'
11)'Constantly learning what you don't know is the best part of my day'
12) 'Put a lot on take a lot off...paint that is'
13) 'The reset button-that's why God made gesso'
14) 'When you ask yourself a question, pay close attention to the answer'
15) 'Your job as an artist isn't to know, it's to find out'
16) 'If you think it, paint it, trust it, don't fear it.
17) 'Trust the mark and modify it if necessary-it's not the initial mark but the residual mark that counts'
18) It's not as important to know what a stroke will do but to find out what it can do.
19) 'Don't get caught up in the small stuff'
20) ''If I predetermine the outcome it negates the creative process'
21) 'Good art happens for a reason'