” It is not enough for a painter to be a clever craftsman; he must love to caress his canvas too.” Pierre Auguste Renoir
I would like to address a response to the post about the deep meaning behind my art. Once artists start showing their work, they are asked for an “Artist’s Statement”. The purpose is to let the visual audience know what the artist’s intent is. More to the point, I believe, it makes the artist zero in on what his or her true purpose is for doing art…to examine his creative process. It was not an easy task the first time I had to do it. I had to ponder a lot of thoughts and feelings. If we are honest with ourselves, on the surface we all have a lot of simplistic reasons for producing art, but when we stop and ask ourselves the hard questions, about why we are creating something, analyze where our creative spirit comes from, and what motivates us to do the subjects we choose, we discover deeper reasons. There is nothing wrong with painting a pretty picture. There are a lot of buyers out there for “pretty pictures”. The question lies in why did you want to paint that subject. What was it, that attracted you to it? What about it is so intriguing you are going to give it your time?
Wildlife Preserve
As an Instructor I am going to separate the painting process into two areas. The paintings you paint because you love the subject, and need to capture something about it, and the paintings you do to learn a technique, new medium, or style.
Sunrise Over Rosebay
Antique Shop
Not ever painting needs to be a masterpiece. Some paintings are done to learn a technique, style, or experience a new medium. Once you have “mastered” those things, and explored what the medium can do, then you paint from your heart and paint what you love. Then you can get into the “zone” where you don’t worry about the correctness of it, but the feeling you have for it.
“Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.” Edgar Degas
I learned to paint objects, but I have to paint nature. What is it that you have to paint?
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