MASTERPIECE

I am on a wonderful journey of discovery under the tuition of an inspirational art teacher ,in Gata de Gorgos (Spain), called Julia.  I grew up believing I could not draw or paint.  Along the way I am sure this view was reinforced by others but most of all by myself.  Julia is taking me step by step along a path that has already shown me I can do far more than I ever thought possible.  I have a drawing I am proud of and am now making progress with an oil painting.  Already I am looking at the world around me in new ways and it has got me reflecting about the process of producing a masterpiece.
A simple but profound instruction from Julia was 'don't draw what you see but draw what is there'.   It didn't mean anything at first.  First I put a grid in place and then drew lines in relation to where they were on a grid of the picture I was working on.  Once the lightly drawn outline was in place I added in the dark areas.  All the time paying no attention to the overall picture but focussing on small areas of detail and reproducing them as best I could.  The fun bit was adding a mid tone all over the picture.  Just rub the pencil over the paper until it is all mid tone.  I could now work on the lighter tones by rubbing out and the mid tones by enhancing.  Gradually a picture began to emerge and as I stood back from the detail and took a look I was astonished at the result.
I am now working on an oil painting and the process is similar.  Outline, lights and darks, blend the boundaries, lights and darks, always focus on the detail I am working on and then stand back and see the effect.  I will not produce a masterpiece but already I am producing something that is pleasing for me.  The pleasure is in the process of painting, seeing the world afresh and achieving a result beyond any expectations I had before meeting Julia.  In my early learnings of the process of painting it makes me think aboutI the patience and commitment to produce a work that moves the soul.
At a dinner party a guest is reputed to have said to Proust of a page in 'In Search of Lost Time' that 'you must have been in heaven the day you wrote that page' to which he replied 'madame that page took over a year to write and included many moments of torture along the way.'  Julia says that in every picture she paints she can always see what more she could do and how she could improve next time.  These are the seeds of a masterpiece as the artist puts something on the canvas, looks at it, works on it, stands back, reworks it, lets the mood emerge, does some more, leaves it for a while, maybe longer, thinks about it, forgets it, comes back to it fast and slow.  Go right in to the detail, work on it and stand back to see the effect.  Emotions reach peaks and troughs and a battle to start again or throw it all away is constantly being fought.  Eventually something emerges that seems to make sense and brings an inner calm and a smile is allowed.  It is satisfying and good enough to say 'it is done.'  Very occasionally in a lifetime there is somewhere something that is produced that is accepted as a masterpiece.  Acceptance comes as it touches many souls and the viewer transcends prior understanding of the way the world is.  It seems to me that as long as there are new eyes looking there will always be a fresh way to see 'what is there.'