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       So many lessons --both in art and in life! It feels like I'm a slow learner because most of the things I 'know' came about through lots of repetition, and just catching myself over and over and over again. I can remember hearing my teachers explain something and thinking 'Aha! Now I've got it!!' But much to my dismay, those revelations would all too often get shoehorned out of the way by some other bit of knowledge I was trying to grasp. With enough persistence I could eventually absorb the lessons of that particular concept and move on, but at its best, learning for me has always been two steps forward and one back. 

         In art school I recognized that some people had knowledge I didn't possess but I had no idea how in the world to acquire it. One student in particular, who I thought to be very good, would come up behind me and say "You're just not seeing it." and I wanted to scream ---- I know.... but, I'm not seeing WHAT!?  This was before I learned that some people stumble across seeing skills when they're fairly young and although they can do it, they can't or perhaps don't even want to articulate how they got there. Those people get labeled as 'talented' and for all I know they are, but the basic steps of what they are doing can definitely be taught and learned. This is why, in my teaching I try my best to point out specific examples in helping people retrain their eyes, but it's still a slow, deliberate process. Not easy, but doable. 

        Somewhere along the way I discovered that it wasn't just my teachers who were talking about the need to develop seeing skills. Without exception when I've been able find quotes about learning or teaching from artists I admire, there's been this familiar refrain emphasizing the importance of seeing skills. From Chardin to Sargent, lots of incredible artists in-between and since, the advice has been consistent-- seeing, seeing, seeing. 

       What's really the biggest advantage in learning to see is that along with it, you can discover paths to grow in ways that make sense for your unique voice. Rather than your art education being a series of lessons to memorize on how to paint mountains, how to paint tulips, how to paint owls or lighthouses, it is all simplified into how to observe what is actually there and then how best to use your materials in capturing that vision. Once you crack the code you can study the work of anyone you admire and at least have an understanding of what they did to achieve those effects. That's not to say a good teacher can't still inspire and help speed up the learning process but you have the tools to figure it out on your own and that's a far better feeling than being totally in the weeds and hoping against hope that the secret to painting lies in the most recent handful of brushes you splurged on. You can also learn from paintings you don't like and that can give you insight into your own tastes. Instead of looking at a painting and just saying, 'Well, I don't like that.', I try to look past the surface and determine exactly what I don't like about it-- stopping to study for a moment and noting  'Oh yeah, I don't especially care for that color combination' or 'That object leaning to the side feels like it's about to fall over.' It's easier to spot these things in somebody else's work and analyzing in depth can give you insights into things to avoid or directions you might want explore in your own work.

       Seeing isn't something you either do or not, but rather a sensitivity to nuances and big relationships that for the most part the average person isn't aware of. There are other things that go into painting such as design and technique but in my opinion, people give more weight to those things than they should. Focusing on acquiring the difficult seeing skills that many want to skip over can set one's work apart from the crowd. From there, developing a sense of technique and composition can flow from a natural curiosity and exploration of one's own personal preferences. 

       If I could give any student just one gift, it would be the ability to see within the context of how an artist processes visual information. In terms of building blocks, seeing skills are the foundation. Always evolving ---seeing more clearly is a discipline that can go as far as the artist is willing to take it. Literally, a lifetime of entertainment. That skill  -- to be able to analyze what is really in front of us unclouded by what we think or assume is there, is really the key to being able to teach ourselves. And that one key has been invaluable to me in opening the door to better self-expression, not to mention a much greater appreciation of the beauty in the world around me.

"Your ability to see is your tools of the trade; nothing else matters. Beautiful seeing is the desideratum. Remember, when you hear people say they can see a thing but not do it that they cannot really see it. If they did, they could do it even if they put the paint on with their fingers." --- Charles Hawthorne, Hawthorne on Painting