Every now and then I hold a painting class at the Art Guild. One of the first things I say is this:

"We are painting, not making copies of photographs. It is no coincidence that when the first photographs appeared about 1850, painters were liberated from being photographers. They started painting in the 'style' we call Post Impressionism. So we are going to paint color and form as we wish to paint it, not as we see it. Make your paintings look like they were painted. Don't attempt to smooth shades and make your canvas look like a photo. Let the viewer see your work was done with brush strokes."

One of the reasons some people say "I can't paint" is because they try to mimic the camera. They get frustrated when they can't merge a red cloth into a dark gray shadow.

I tell them, "Forget it. Paint what you think looks good, not what you think you see."

Then I begin to see real good artwork come from them.

Color is what we use. I look at a design I want to paint and see a blue sky, lighter at the horizon and always darker and bolder at the apex. But I am not confined by those rules of nature because I am painting, not photographing.

So if I want to try my own interpretation I am free to do so. I may make the whole sky some other shades or even colors.

I hay be painting a scene that has a house on a slope below a hill with fields and trees. Maybe the house is a neat part of the scene, but what if I want the house moved higher on the hill? What if I want to delete the house entirely?

I am free to do so.

As for color, there are tricks and methods to make it work for you. That is technique. You experiment and keep experimenting until you get what you like. Nobody wrote a rule that says a shadow must be gray. In fact, most shadows are not gray. They contain background color and are affected by what is surrounding them.

For instance, if a horse is standing on a patch of grass, chances are that the shadow of the horse is green.

Clouds are mostly gray, not white. But why? What if I want to make the clouds reflect the colors I have painted on the hills? If the hills are kind of golden, why not have some of that color on the bottom of the clouds?

I can.

Don't try to be Michaelangelo, Rembrandt or David. They painted long ago when the camera hadn't been invented. Rather than copy what you see, re-invent what you see. Interpret what you see into what pleases you. If you are the artist, you are the ultimate audience. Forget what the critics say. Just do it.