Mary Pettis: “Painting from the Inside-Out”

Our March 27 meeting featured oil painter, Mary Pettis, who showed us how to make a great start by “painting from the inside-out.”  Mary stressed that we often spend too much time on technique and not enough time deciding on the “why” of the painting.

She begins each painting with a clear concept, artistic intent, or message. In her first painting, a wave crashing on a beach, her intent was to show the power, majesty, and glory of the wave.  “Paint the painting in your head first,” she advised.

She mixed her paints and jumped right in with large shapes and lines. “Every painting needs a focal path, not necessarily a focal point,” she advised. In her second painting, a tree tunnel on the island of Kauai, she blocked in large shapes, always keeping in mind her intent to show light coming through the trees.

Mary’s sense of design and her passion for the message of the painting transferred perfectly to her water media-artist audience. It was another warm and inspiring evening on a snowy winter (March!) evening.