Beaver or butterfly?
The wording in Marlene Griffin’s letter (LP, October 2017) seems to imply to me that either one chooses a medium and grafts away at it regardless in the hope that some sort of success ensues, or flits from topic to topic, never staying long enough to find out much about anything.
There is nothing wrong with using many different media or even several different media in the same work – Picasso did and so did Leonardo to name but two. The trick is to understand each medium then to apply yourself to get the best out of it. Composition and perspective apply to all media so if you have an understanding of the basics then you can use acrylic, watercolour, oil or any other medium to construct your picture. Whether you can produce a picture with life and vibrancy is down to talent and imagination, and no amount of ‘beavering’ and ‘butterflying’ can give you that.