The other day I heard a want-to-be artist say "I took his course and learned not a thing." I couldn't help but ask what was it he expected from his teacher. "I want to be an artist and I want him to teach me what to do." was his answer.
You can be taught how to mix colors, how to use a brush, what papers work best, what colors Sargent used, how your favorite artist approached a canvas. None of these will make you an artist, they will teach you how to make a painting, even make one that looks like a Zorn. To make an artist you have to have life's experience, and be willing to share it with others. You also need to recognize that you have a voice of your own.
Took me a while to find my own voice, takes most artists a while to find their own voice. I can name three artists who taught me how to paint and how to put a picture together. Being an artist took a lot more than that. My brother Francis taught me how to see the world with a pure heart. Being mentally handicap he saw the good in everyone - where I preferred to kick the crap out of the bad kids or get the crap kicked out of me trying to correct their ways.
Trick-or-Treating, they made us sing for our treat. Another experience that adds to my art was stealing grapes... which was not acceptable and that act gave me time to think and draw instead of play. Mom liked us kids to think after we did things like stealing grapes. Having a crush on a girl who thought I had coodies was just more color to add to my palette. Having a neighbor scream from her window "Jack hung himself"; knowing a boy who drown himself because being gay wasn't accepted when I was a kid. These are things that stay with you.
I really believe all life's experiences flavor our art. The more we look inward the clearer we see the world around us. Francis's smile is there for me when things look dark. I like to think of my art as his smile. I believe an artist learns the basics from other artists, and then sets about finding his or her voice.
92,674 Photos
Never know what's coming your way, that is especially true with me. I never pass up a chance to work with an interesting person or a pretty girl. When I'm lucky to have both qualities in one person, well that, my friend, is heaven. There are times when I'm in a real quandary with what to paint - peonies in bloom or an interesting young lady at the door asking to pose?
Actually it was Brad, Jordan's dad at the door with Jordan. Figured if he is half as interesting as Jordan, he's my subject, my reward for being such a good person. Really didn't ask him to pose, just sat him down and pulled out a canvas and set about painting him. The three of us had a great time getting to know one another. Listening to stories of life in the Arkansas hills, raising a family on near nothing added a richness to Brad's weathered face, and more interest in capturing the inner qualities in Jordan.
What to do about the peonies though? They bloom only in the Spring and never have I seen peonies in floral shops. I had to photograph them for a later time. Way too revved to do peonies. I had no idea it would be a few years before I got around to using those photos of those peonies.
My method of working, creating art, is to dwell on a concept for day or weeks while completing another painting. I have 92,674 pictures locked away in my computer as back up for things I may need to work through in a painting. The white roses didn't work out for my present still-life so finally, after 10 years, I'm using the peony pictures. In doing so I remember Brad, giving me the urge to do a portrait of a friend from Jake's where I spend my Wednesdays and Fridays drinking great coffee and studying the characters that frequent Jake's.
My mind is constantly dreaming up paintings, sometime I would like it to give me a break and let me finish the painting I have on the easel. My concept calls for a garden scene behind the arrangement of flowers on the windowsill. For the garden scene I have a detailed on-the-spotter of a collector's garden, which I need to work up into a major piece for them. I need to get out to their place before Autumn is here. This is how it is, now I'm not sure what this blog is about... Oh yeah, it's about getting a painting done, whether you paint from life or from photos or from imagination it's the finished painting that counts. I'll do anything to get what's in my head out onto canvas. Those 92,674 photos are there in my computer to help me create. I may head over to the florist to stock up on inspiration when I finish this blog, always nice to fill the studio with possible paintings.
