Painting and Photoshop

If you have been looking at my paintings you would have noticed I have made reference to using Photoshop occasionally to assist me in the compositions.  Not any more.  Some years ago I got really involved in the wonderful imaging world of Photoshop - scanning images, digitally cutting and pasting one image into another, altering the light settings to turn day into night etc.  I would proudly print out my composition for a new project and then a thought would come into my head;
     "damn, now I have to paint this."
This attitude was dangerous as far as I was concerned, because the act of painting is what it's all about, not coming up with clever compositions.  Not that I regret using Photoshop, far from it, it's just that I got carried away with the technology and forgot that I am first and foremost - a painter. 

I often think of the Heidelberg School artist David Davies who was active in the late 19th century.  

David Davies   Moonrise   1894

If I had been sitting next to Davies and taken a photograph of this scene and shown it to some friends, they would think that I was in need of assistance.  But Davies knew it was the act of applying the paint to a surface that counted.  He used thick impasto to get the effect he was looking for.  The physical act of painting has to be an enjoyable experience, otherwise there is no point in doing it and this is what I'm focussed on now.