Scott
Burdick
2004
"Ollantaytambo Trio" Peru oil. 46" by
36"
In painting this I noticed so many little things about these people that I'd
missed when I saw them in person and snapped the photos I worked from in the
studio; the extra safety pins in the girl's hat which they use instead of
buttons for their cloaks, the fact that the old woman's coffee cup is actually
an upside down water bottle with the bottom cut off, etc. When you're painting
something, it forces you to study every inch of a scene and the little
revelations are simply magic. This is one of the reasons that moving images will
never completely replace paintings or photographs, which allow the viewer much
more time to study a single slice in time. As a painting, you are not only
studying this scene, but the scene as I see it and consciously and unconsciously
interpret it. This is what is meant by "seeing through the eyes of the
artist". This would be especially obvious if several artists had painting
these same woman at this exact moment. Each painting would be quite different,
thought the "reality" of the scene would not have changed.
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