Friday, April 20, 2012

A big advantage of painting over photography

(click on image to enlarge)

Columbine Garden on Salt Spring Island
Watercolour
©2012 Charlene Brown

It takes a lot longer to paint something than to photograph it, but painters do have some huge advantages over photographers. My favourite is that you can put whatever you want into your picture. Of course, this only applies to painters not too tightly bound to reality, or to rules like ‘one painting – one subject,’ which I’ve never liked much.
Photographers can get Mount Maxwell and the lovely little church (it’s St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church, should you be wondering) lined up in one shot if they’re quick and pick the right moment as the ferry swings around and heads for the dock at Fulford Harbour. But only a painter can work in this spectacular columbine garden, which is not in fact located in the middle of the harbour, but at an artist’s studio at the top of a precipitous drive up the hill on the right.