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Two weeks ago, I was just wrapping up my participation in the Laguna Beach Painting Invitational in California. Thirty-five painters were selected from across the nation to paint Laguna for a week in October, select three of their best works, and display those—and others they wished to show—in a culminating exhibit in a spectacular venue on the scenic Laguna Canyon Road in Laguna Beach.

An event like this is never easy, nor comfortable. Pacing, timing, speed and efficiency, subject selection, getting enough sleep are all factors that become very important during the week. Gear has to be transported, often on foot, there are long hours, there are mandatory events to attend during the time to paint. Most significantly, the majority of the work is done on site, from life, in front of the subject, en plein air.

John Burton, an immensely-talented and hard-work professional and teacher, has frequently said, “Painting  from life is like an open-book test—painting in the studio is closed book. When you’re away from the subject, you have to rely on what you know, or make it up. Looking at your subject while you paint it is much easier.”

I completely agree. An artist may work from the subject directly, he may use photographs as reference, he can imagine what he wants to paint. In the world of representational art, a great deal of careful and accurate observation is required, in order to create a believable portrait, scene, or circumstance.

The downside of photographs is that they do not give the artist who uses them as reference the complete picture. They are deceiving in the way they depict the  light, perspective, proportion, and color. The human eye can vastly “out-see” the camera  lens when it comes to the observation of all of these. In a photo, shadows are often too black, lights too light, shapes and structures are out of proportion, and the color may be completely different than what you saw when you took the picture.

The only way for an artist to see accurately is to study his/her subject from life. Unlike the camera, the artist is able to respond  with emotion and sensitivity to the subject. Poetry of patterns, rhythm of lines and shapes, subtleties of color are all available to an on-the-spot inquisitive eye. After all, a painting is more an experience with the subject than a recording of its elements. Drawings and paintings created from life have the artist’s heart and soul in them, not just their eyeball.

The next time you see a painting or drawing, ask yourself where the artist was when he/she created it.

That location may make all the difference in the encouragement and persuasion of the viewer to experience the artist’s subject, rather than to simply see it.