Learning How To Paint

When I first started to learn how to paint, I wanted to do portraits.

I did not know that I was trying to run before I could walk, or before I could even stand up. 
Wanting to start at the top.
How unreasonable could I be? 
I did not know any better.

When I was little, I loved to copy movie stars' photos. With no one to guide me. No instructions. We did not have art lessons in school. 
I tried to teach myself.
I thought I did a fairly decent job.
I did not understand "hatching" or "cross-hatchig," or "lost and found edges," or "perspective."
What did I know?

My teacher, Maud, told me that I was setting my bar too high. I needed to learn from the bottom up. 
First do drawing, then learn composition and so on. Learn the rules, then may be I could learn to  paint.
Pity that she only gave me a few lessons and stopped for some personal reasons. 

Carolyn was too sweet. She allowed me to struggle.
I could tell that something was not right, but did not know how to make it right.
She would make corrections for me, but she could not tell me Why.
I manged to do a fair job. But because I did not know the real How To, I never truly advanced. 
Wish she would have told me the truth.
May be she did not know how. 
Or, was it because she did not wish to hurt my feelings?

Do you know that the Old-school Teaching did not allow the students to paint until they could really, really draw and understanding drawing? 
Fechin did that. Sargent, too. 
Sergei Bongart definitely did. He is my favorite Russian-American Impressionist.

I finally realized the problem - my unrealistic aim of attaining "instant gratification." Right or Wrong.
By then, I already wasted a number of years. I also had to undo the many bad habits.

Now, I am trying to catch up.

People are complicated subjects to paint. 

That is why I paint a lot of apples. 
Apples have much simpler forms.
Apples do not move.
I can control the lighting.
I can see the different types of shadows.
I can see the reflections.
I can set the stage.

It is said that if you can paint an apple, you can paint anything.

I tell my students that, even if they don't want to paint apples.