For the next two weeks, I won’t be painting.

I’ve been thinking about what is copying and what is not. Using Artificial Intelligence to create photo-quality images to paint is not copying. Nobody would have a problem with an artist painting from a photo the artist took, so telling an AI program to create a photo-quality image of something the artist specified parameters for and then painting that image is not copying because that is not copying a painting and its colors, brushstrokes, and style. Telling the AI program to create an image of a painting and then painting that image is copying.

For now, I plan to paint still-life photo images created by AI and my parameters. I can manually set still-life compositions up, photograph them, and then paint them, but it’s a real pain. Plus you have to buy everything to set up. Also, I will paint landscapes from my photos and imagination in two styles, California Impressionism and realism.

From now on I won’t be showing reference materials.