My oil painting professor worked hard to convince me to leave the arid region and plow ahead through goopy gooey cake frosting paint. James Eisentrager wanted me to simplify and clarify in my paintings, and to enjoy a wider range of textures. Ah, oils! Nothing else compares.
Every artist, writer, and athlete must strive to find their Soft Game. We all want to let it hang out in feverish exertion and big kicks. It is so much more difficult to find the control, calm, clarity, center, and concentration that defines the true artistic or athletic accomplishment.
My little students have been painting to music, and trying to find a little touch of calm and clarity. We are trying to put our colors next to each other instead of stirring them all on top of each other into mud. We listened to James Galway's recording, "Seasons", until we were nearly comatose. We let Fluffy the Paintbrush dance across our paper in time with Smetana's "The Moldau". We read about the little green cat and the pink dog dancing into a soft gray fog in Margaret Wise Brown's book, "The Color Kittens".
My soccer coach friend is on the same task with the same age group. He is teaching a brand new bunch of kids about the game and reports:
Soft game worked fabulous. that is my best deal. afterall, they can't kick it, so i told them not to kick it. i want the ball under them, rolling under their control. i am going to convince them, the ball goes where i move it.
i think i will have them repeat.... The ball goes, where i move it. after a few practices i might change the word move to kick.
but i also got them quiet by saying "soft".
Professor Eisentrager reminds me to paint as if I were brushing frosting and cake batter and yogurt around my canvas, but to seek clarity and order. In my dreams I am driving on the streets of Wayne Thiebaud's paintings.
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