A Pause for Beauty:

An Artist’s Journal

The Gods Favor Continuous Work

The Chalk Horse

I once heard a world—class marathon runner say that if he skips training for one day, he notices it. Two days, and his competitors notice it. Three days, and the crowd notices it.

I was traveling a couple of weeks ago and didn't paint for several days. I got the point where, before publishing another Reflection, I needed to focus on painting until I produced something worthwhile. I can usually paint realistic watercolors, but the work that really captures my imagination, that excites me, are quick, impressionistic sketches that somehow capture the essence of a subject. Those I can only do after several days of continuous work, and even then only when the art gods are with me.

Once I was talking to Robert Frost about a poem of his that is so beautifully written, it is considered by some to be actually perfect. It is called "Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening." And I asked him, “You must have worked a long time on that. It must have been done in the middle of the winter. What was your experience?" He said, "Andy, I’ll tell you about that. I’d been writing a very complicated, long drawn-out poem, almost a story type of poem entitled "Death of a Hired Man." I had finished at two o'clock in the morning. It was a hot August night, and I was exhausted. I walked out on the porch of my house and looked at the mountain range. It came to me in a flash! I wrote it on an envelope I had in my pocket, and I only changed one word. It came out just like that."
- Two Worlds of Andrew Wyeth, A Conversation with Andrew Wyeth

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You can find the rest of the 2022 Pause For Beauty here.