IT'S OFFICIAL...

... "One Hour/One Painting" is now "The Art of Looking."  We had our first session yesterday, and I noticed, in my introduction, how hard it is to change the mental habits.  I'm so used to the title "One Hour/One Painting" and its easy acronym, OH/OP, that they keep slipping out.  The new acronym?  AoL?  But hasn't that been used before...?

Anyway, we had a great session at Lora Schlesinger Gallery, with this painting by Roberto Gil de Montes...

Roberto Gil de Montes, "Henry Moore," 2014, oil on linen,  75" x 98 1/2"

... a complex work with lots of activity and references, both art historical and literary.  But the point, as always with OH/OP--I mean, AoL--is not to pick up on all the references, not to "think" about what we're looking at, but simply to do the spade-work of actually looking at what's there.  All the rest, as I tried to point out to a questioner after the sit, should follow the looking, not precede it.  Otherwise we end up looking at our own prejudice and preconception, what we already know.  That takes the adventure out of the time we spend with art.