Aristides - Lessons in classical painting: essential techniques from inside the atelier

Maria Oakey Dewing, Garden in May (detail), 1895, oil on canvas, 23 32 inches (60.1 82.5 cm). Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, D.C.). Image courtesy of the Art Renewal Center (artrenewal.org).

Eastman Johnson, The Girl I Left Behind Me, circa 1872, oil on canvas, 42 34 inches (106.7 88.7 cm). Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, D.C.). Image courtesy of the Art Renewal Center (artrenewal.org).

Born in Maine, Eastman Johnson studied in Dsseldorf, Germany, and later in Paris with Thomas Couture. He was interested in furthering American painting and subject matter. Johnson lived through the Civil War; this painting captures the passion and emotion of a resilient people who faced hardship and separation.

But dont be satisfied with stories, how things
have gone with others. Unfold your own myth, without complicated explanation,
so everyone will understand the passage,

We have opened you.

Rumi (120773)

How do people manage to find a way for themselves in this world? I always thought it a miracle that a person can be born, grow up, leave his or her home, and make a credible life; as subject to chance and fate as a seed from a dandelion, blown through the air, resting where the circumstances perfectly conspire for it to grow. It always appeared equally possible that the wind could just blow the seed forever. To me, the process of successfully growing up never felt inevitable.

During my teenage years I felt that endlessly drifting was a distinct possibility. The ordinary often felt miraculous; things that seemed obvious to others stupefied me. The trees outside my bedroom window appeared slightly different every dayI found the view oddly and endlessly engaging. To my surprise, the road next to my house wasnt black, but violet. I also began to wonder how I, whose only skill was to be easily stumped, could get a jobor if I even wanted a job.

By high school I made friends with my sketchbook. Through my sketchbook I found a means to engage with the world. I could finally start to ground my ideas through art. I brought this notebook everywhere with me. It was a place to record my thoughts; it formed a buffer against the world and a filter for my imagination.

When I graduated, through fate or grace, I found a rigorous art teacher who ran a private studio. I remember struggling. Everything I did seemed to come out painfully wrong. I even had to relearn how to hold my pencil. I recall my teacher yelling that he wouldnt let me paint the back of his garage. Yet, in his studio, not only was it okay to look endlessly at the model or still life, it was required. Suddenly, the rules of the world made sense to me. Though never studious or brilliant academically, I found myself working through the night, relentlessly curious to learn all I could about artistic seeing. I discovered I was not alone, but part of a long tradition.

Maria Olano, In the Meadow, 2014, pastel on paper, 9 12 inches (22.86 30.48 cm). Private collection.