Thought for the New Year

Some things bear repeating, so please indulge me with this post, much of which I wrote a few years back.  The New Year is the time when everybody focuses on goals and improvement. It's easy to make resolutions to improve our skills, or our productivity.  But every serious painter knows the hard truth: there are many stumbles on the path to improvement, and you must be willing to fall, and then pick yourself back up, and start over. Progress can be sporadic (and that's an understatement). Many hours must be put in. Courage and perseverance are key.

 

I reflected on this truth while reading an article that discussed how babies learn to walk. Toddlers learning to walk are so determined that they travel the length of about eight football fields in ONE HOUR. During that hour, they fall an average of 30 times. It takes 2.6 million steps for them to become proficient at walking. As the article notes, a failure rate like this would be deeply discouraging (the article even said "catastrophic") for an adult trying to learn a new skill. 

Toddlers persevere in learning to walk because faster, hands-free mobility is thrilling to them.  Adults persevere in our endeavors because mastery of a new skill is nirvana. 

Toddlers also teach us that learning is not linear.  They often start to walk, and then revert to crawling for a while. Their progress is U-shaped.  In other words, when learning a new skill, we often get worse before we get better.

Another important lesson is that infants learn best "when operating near the limits of their current skill level."  The takeaway for the rest of us is clear:  Always be "at the edge of what you can't currently do."  

 "Stacked"

18 x 12, Oil on Cradled Panel

(c) Lesley Powell 2026

I've written about the creative process before, and the example of toddlers learning to walk reinforces some of the notions I explored then. It's a nice concrete example to keep in mind as we start the New Year.  Yes, it's frustrating to be at the edge of what you can't currently do--but oh, the rewards are great when you can push that boundary a little bit further!  Wishing you all a happy and healthy 2026!

Paris Petites

The month of May--what a marvelous month to be in Paris!  I tried to soak up every bit of the French capital that I could.  In addition to croissants and delicious stinky cheeses and visits to museums, I spent hours out and about with my easel, painting.  Painting on location is a way to really SEE.  It forces you to slow down and take in all the aspects of your surroundings. 

"Seine Reflections", 9.5 x 7.5 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

One of my favorite places to paint in Paris is along the quais of the Seine.  The river is always a different color, depending on the sky, the sun, the winds, and the time of day.  So no painting of the same spot is ever the same!  And did I mention the beautiful bridges, and the reflections they make in the water?

"Louvre, Morning Effect", 6.25 x 9.5 inches, Oil on Canvas Panel

I also love to paint in the gardens.  It's hard to say which is my favorite--the Luxembourg Gardens or the Tuileries.  Both have wide passages of white-ish sandy gravel, creating shapes and angles that are very appealing.  Both are punctuated by monuments of quintessentially French architecture (the Sénat building at Luxembourg, or the Louvre at the Tuileries).  So much to savor!

""Pont Marie, Soft Light", 8 x8 inches, Oil on Linen, mounted on panel

I'm illustrating this post with several paintings I did on location in my favorite spots.  These and more are available at the time of this post (July 7, 2025) on my website, here.  Take a look, and enjoy this virtual trip to Paris!

In Hopper's Footsteps

"Stairway at 48 rue de Lille, Paris, 1906"

Edward Hopper

 Years ago, I was captivated by an exhibit at the Mint Museum in Charlotte, "Hopper in Paris".  We think of Hopper as a quintessentially American painter, but he spent a significant amount of time in Paris between 1906 and 1910.  And that time yielded over one hundred drawings and paintings.  During his early Parisian stays, Hopper lived at 48 rue de Lille, in the 7th arrondissement.  His quarters adjoined the Evangelical Baptist Church (which had sponsored his visit).  Here's what it looks like now:

And guess what?  I was there last month!  The ground floor is now a space dedicated to art exhibits, and my friend Marie Sand had an opening there to which I was invited.  Imagine my excitement when she showed me the courtyard--the very one that Hopper had painted. Here's the courtyard as painted by Hopper, and how it appears now:

I poked around the building a little bit, and discovered some humble stairways that were very reminiscent of the one Hopper painted (top image).  Perhaps not the very stairs that were the subject of Hopper's painting, but close enough to give me goosebumps.  It's a thrill to stand in the footsteps of a great painter from the past, and to get a glimpse into his life and his painting process.  I learned from standing in Hopper's shoes that the most humble places can be the impetus for memorable paintings.   

I'm closing with another Hopper painting of his courtyard at rue de Lille, from a higher vantage point.  I can see in these early paintings the themes that would come to define Hopper:  interior spaces without human activity, and the architecture of simple planes and lines.  Hopper's Paris works are definitely worth a close study.