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A bit more for Mai
First, thanks to all for their compliments on my work. It is always gratifying and inspiring to hear that from fellow painters.
Mai, your scientific/mathematical mind is probably one of the best things you can have going for you. As you have been gathering, the craft of painting requires intense focus, an agile mind, and disciplined, diligent practice. The only danger -- and that may be too strong a word -- is that of getting bogged-down in the minutiae of things. The "big picture" and first principles, or, in other words, the fundamentals, are always the prime concern. When I find myself discouraged by one thing or another in any given project, I go back a few steps to the bigger picture. Almost always, I discover that my frustration was caused by my having overlooked or having made a mistake in some fundamental aspect or another. It's rarely the thing that is frustrating me that actually caused it. Know what I mean?
Regarding your search for training, here are a couple of things to keep in mind, if I may. First, there are many effective systems of painting out there. The best of them share certain similarities, but each has their differences and peculiarities. As such, I would be careful not to venture too far afield. That is, it's better to fully appropriate one system, which is hard enough, and then later to pick and choose elements of others from time to time and fit them into your own. I've met a number of artists who are frustrated with their progress and, when examined more carefully, it seems to boil down to their having "cherry-picked" over the years from this teacher and from that. At best, this leads to confusion.
Once you find a system that suits you (an artist whose work you admire is not a bad place to look) and a teacher/mentor/advisor whom you are in tune with, I would recommend that you stick with him/her for as long as possible until you've appropriated that system fully. As long as this process takes -- and it can be years -- it is still the fast-track.
Anyway, it sounds as if you are already doing many of the right things.
As the Italians say, "In boca lupo"
Juan
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