Paint by Memory
/Inspiration for my daily watercolor practice can be found in just about everything around me. I look closely at real-life subjects around the house (hello plants and food), details from outdoor adventures, and even pages of vintage Field Guide books. Bonus points for the phenomenal capabilities of my cell phone camera, which is always within reach.
But how good is our actual memory for retaining images, details, colors, shapes, dimensions? I wasn’t sure until I put this question into practice with my cousin, Aaron, a fellow watercolor artist-in-training like myself.
The Assignment
We decided to challenge ourselves with daily turn-taking assignments of painting a suggested subject. The rules were simple:
You HAD to paint from memory
You could NOT look up an image on the internet or in a book
It had to be shared that same day.
We posted the results on IG stories to hold ourselves accountable, dissect each other’s recollections of said subject, and encourage others to participate.
This was fascinating, embarrassing, hilarious, and everything in between. But most of all, it was an excellent practice in recall. We challenged our memories to visualize the fine details of a given subject. Further, we learned over time how to send these messages from our brains to our paint brushes.
Aaron and I did this almost every day for two months, with early morning emails sent back and forth containing our subject matter. The results were amazing…from bridges to bananas, giraffes and geodes. We tried Converse, tea sets, fruit and boats. We painted Big Bird, hot air balloons, kitchen utensils, and cake. Then tried to recall dolphins, lamps, taxis, and lakes. No subject was off-limits.
Enjoy the gallery of our results (my art is shown first in each duo; Aaron’s second), then give it a try. Like me, you may find yourself sure that Nemo is an orange and black fish but uncertain as to whether he has fins or not.
