Be true to your “art and soul.”
Yesterday via Twitter, I stumbled across a still life painter’s blog, Louise B. Hafesh. Her most recent post is a list of 10 Tips for a Better (Painting) Life. The tip that spoke most to me was number 2:
Be true to YOUR ‘art and soul’. Encourage your inner vision; let your imagination soar and don’t concern yourself with what others may think of your work.
Words to live by, but often it is difficult to keep one’s true course when often the people closest to you think you have gone astray.
The art world teaches us to paint in a consistent recognizable style.
I often paint in two different styles. One is a fairly realistic style that I like because the work is easier to sell and generally more accepted, and the other work is where my heart lies. When I first began exploring abstract and expressionist painting, it was hard for me to comprehend myself. I am still not sure that I truly understand it on an intellectual level, but I thrive when exploring with my brush and I try to keep the voices, of the people who tell me that “the way that I used to paint is better,” quiet in my head.
A quote from Pablo Picasso comes to mind.
The chief enemy of creativity is good sense.
Clementines and Vase / Buddha
Aaron, Great Post… and not just because you mentioned my “Tips!” Being torn between two styles myself, I can relate to your dilemma. Schooled in the traditional methods, I tend to paint realistically, which suits my temperament. I do, however, treasure opportunities to break from the mold and paint entirely from my imagination. Dreamscapes, as I call them are pure joy to paint!
As I get older, I am more convinced artist is a state of being. It is not necessarily about anything technical or contrived. It is not something outside one’s self. The output is simply a record of that state of being. Aaron, none of your paintings are realistic. They are better than that. There is always something uniquely expressionist about the way you lay down your stroke, your gesture. Your way of painting is very emotional and almost always eclipses and in turn enhances the subject matter you choose. Whether you are being more literal or non objective, simply painting is your strength.
@Louise B. Hafesh Thanks for the kind comment Louise. I did like the rest of your tips as well. Number two just spoke to me after I had completed a painting that I was quite pleased with yet my wife didn’t understand it. (But I have to add in case she reads this that she does have a great eye for art. She just doesn’t like art that is not realistic.)
I think after studying scientific illustration and quite often doing technical illustrations for work that I find myself gravitating more towards the paintings that are “pure joy to paint.”
And while looking through your blog I noticed that you also have a background in journalism as well.
@Jouwayed Hello Freddy! And you are too kind. Thanks my friend. When ever I read what you have written or talk with you about art I feel educated. (Note to self . . . “being more literal or non objective” to describe my work.) I hear what you are saying, and I couldn’t agree more that artist is a state of being and is not necessarily about technical skills. The older I get, it is becoming easier for me to accept that.