The Muse, Strengthening Weakness and Finding the Right Tools- My 3 Takeaways from Julie Gilbert Pollard
Watercolorist, Julie Gilbert Pollard (Ep. 25) was my guest for the March episode of the podcast. We talked about the 9 basics of watercolor (but translatable to any medium), avoiding mud and how to think through a painting. We covered a lot of territory. Here are my three main takeaways.
DON’T RELY ON THE MUSE
It’s an incredible feeling to be painting with the muse. But the artists you love most have learned to work without their muse. That, “Ugh, I’m just not INSPIRED” feeling isn’t great. It’s also not a reason for our favorite painters to not paint.
The good news is, and Pollard shows us this, that established artists have systems for handling these muse less times. It’s not that Pollards gets visited by the muse more often, it's that she has tried and true systems to lean back on when this very thing happens.
For Pollard it’s her four step sketch or turning to local color and pushing it instead of getting creative with value.
And she has figured out these things beforehand. When nothing is working and you’re frustrated, that isn’t the time to come up with a new system. Pollard knows this. So instead she pulled out a list of what works. She turns off her brain and she starts with step 1, then step 2 and then step 3.
She has figured that out beforehand and gets back to work.
WORK ON WEAKNESSES
Pollard talks about the 9 fundamentals of watercolor, which are wonderfully translatable to any medium. She understands one basic truth: all the skills you need to be a great painter are learnable.
What I love about it as a concept is that understanding the 9 fundamentals gives you a great map for the learning to paint. When you run into a problem, figure out where it is. Name it. If you want, spend some time focusing on it more narrowly.
Learning to paint can feel like this huge, overwhelming task. But Pollard has broken it down into 9 areas. Each accessible in its own way. It’s a great way for her students (and us!) to create a roadmap for how to get better at painting.
DEVELOP THE TOOLS
As painters, we have tools. Tools that can help with specific things. And as we grow as painters, new tools will become available to us that weren’t before. Pollard has learned hers and deploys them when necessary.
Pollard’s four-step sketch is a great example of that. It’s not a finished painting...but it will help make her finished paintings stronger. And when she is having trouble figuring out which moves to make, she prints off the list (the same one she sends to her students), turns off her brain, and walks through those steps.
Another great example is her having a list of design principles ready to go (she uses a list from Frank Webb’s book “Strengthen Your Paintings With Dynamic Composition”) and she thinks through each of them, assessing what works and doesn’t work in her painting.
Pollard has worked to find both the tools she needs and where she may need them.
MAKING YOUR OWN WAY
We don’t walk into the studio each day as the same person. And we don’t emerge the other side the same either. So much of what happens in the middle can feel like sorcery. Or rather, us waiting around while the magicians work and may or may not include us.
But speaking with Pollard I’m struck by how much of the magic happens because we have decided to be smart about how we work. That art is a learnable skill...and what a great opportunity to learn it.
What were your takeaways from the interview? Share below in the comments.
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