Kailua Village Artists

Churchill describes in his essay, Painting as a Pastime, how his discovery of painting and doing something totally different from his military career helped him deal both with stresses of his day-to-day life, gave his brain a rest, and also protected his military mind. “A man”, he writes, “can wear out a particular part of his mind by continually using it and tiring it just in the same way he can wear out the elbows of his coat.” He found the change did him good. He was struck at how, after studying nature and landscapes and structures all those years from a military perspective, to now be looking with an eye for color, light, texture, he felt he was seeing things for the first time; he was encountering the world in a totally different way.

How life changes might affect one's art is also evidenced in Monet’s work. Monet completed 37 paintings of a bridge in his garden in Giverny, mostly painted from the same vantage point, but through different years, seasons, weather, times of day, and how Monet was experiencing the scene. In one exhibition, a number of these paintings were organized chronologically, moving through his life with the bridge as we moved from room to room. Each painting was masterful, yet subtly different from the others. This is what Monet was studying. The changes were intentional and faithful to the moment. It was amazing. Then we walked into another room, and unlike the previous rooms, the change was dramatic. Colors were suddenly brighter and more vivid. I went back to the previous room and re-entered just to check what I was seeing. Something had happened. Apparently, in the time between the previous room to this one, Monet had cataract surgery. Cataracts, I am told, cause a yellowish film over the eye, blurring and altering color sense. He was SEEing the world differently and it affected his work. 

I have since read more on this. As it turns out, after a bit, Monet felt he was not seeing enough yellow; that the colors he was seeing were not “right.” His solution was to have glasses made for him with yellow lenses, so that he could adjust his vision to what wasin his head.

In my own art-life journey there have been adjustments I made just because I wanted to explore the possibilities of a medium, or to try a different approach. These were fun and exciting to do. In the way of Churchill, I embraced change and grew.

There have been adjustments necessary to meet changes in my life circumstances, like a move, or a schedule change, or a new responsibility. These could be somewhat annoying, but given time, they became the new normal with nominal distress.

Other adjustments have been more forced due to physical changes. Years take their toll on the body, which has been particularly difficult for me to accept. Still, after the initial frustrations over being forced to adapt, I have found the process to be invigorating, even cathartic. I see my evolution in both my overall well-being and in the work that is the product of this struggle. In my latest works, I am letting go of the self-imposed stress to create something “significant” and am more willing to “just paint,” challenging my mind and body to stretch as far as it might within the limits life has presently set for me, and just see what happens. Through this exploration, I discover new potential within.