100 ways to become a better artist

Here are a few ideas for artists who might wish to quicken their progress in developing their skills:

*Prepare a hundred or more similar-sized small supports.

*Choose a subject, motif or series you feel has legs.

*Start bashing off everything that comes into your head, no matter how glib. Stretch your mind.

*Abandon bad ideas in a timely way. Don't waste too much time or get hung-up on outright duds.

*Go from one to the other like a bee goes to flowers. Cross pollinate. Ideas breed ideas. Quality breeds quality.

*Keep your strokes fresh, creative and confident--then both you and your work will become fresh, creative and confident.

*Be always in a state of rejection and acceptance. Steadily sort your work like a deck of cards. To win--to get to the stuff that's really worth enlarging--to evolve--you gotta love the little-bets game.

 

    Thought Of The Day

“ A narcissist is someone better looking than you are. ”

— Gore Vidal






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Focus or Fail, The life of an Artist

Art by Delilah

Focus. More artists fail for lack of focus than any other reason.

 I know a wonderful artist who changes styles with the flip of the calendar. He tries contemporary, representational, impressionistic, and trompe l'oiel. He cannot stay focused long enough for any one style/voice to be heard.

I also have trouble staying focused. I work 99% of my time in oils. I have painting in watercolor the last week because I am traveling and this works for me when I travel. My development ficaus as an artist in in oils.


Until an artist can find a voice/style that connects with the buying public and stay with it long enough for the foundation to take root, he will always be way back in the pack, frustrated and angry because he has not been "discovered." Many begin the course, find a medium they love and a style/voice people are willing to pay to own. Just about the time the publice gets to know them and that artist voice is being heard, they get bored and literally go back to the begining by changing mediums, style/voice and subjects.

Right now I am concentrating on fish,lakes,ponds, and marsh land. I will be painting this mostly for the next year. As I develop a style and a voice in this subject.

The most negative statement I hear from artists is, "I get bored."

Wow I know all about that. It is so hard to keep focused after painting a hundred still lifes of a pepper.

Then my suggestion to you is think outside of the box paint it a little differently or add something to the painting. I know I started adding bees and dragonflies to my still life art.

 If  you are going to earning a living as an artist you need to stay focused. The reason is this: you must be able to remain focused and stay the course to reach the other shore. No sailor would start a trans-Atlantic voyage and get bored about half way there because of the doldrums. He would hoist canvas and keep plodding along until a fresh wind filled his sails. Focus or Fail.

Strange Catch

9x9

watercolor

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It takes a lot of Paint to make an artist

There is no substitute for miles on the brush.
You can only learn to paint by painting. Nothing teaches like experience. You can learn about painting by listening to others, reading books and magazines, and by watching teaching dvds and videos, but it is only in the act of painting that you learn to paint. So paint...and then paint some more.

Yes read, watch dvds but then get busy painting.I paint everyday. i watch dvds, then I paint. I take lesson then I paint. It takes a lot of paint to make an artist.

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The business of Art

Life evolves, we change, hopefully we grow and learn new skills. The skills we need change over time and it is hard to keep up. The priority has to remain the same the purpose of your art.

The basics don't really change very much. Yes, the tools change, and the "means" of production and the skills we need change over time and we have to keep up. But the purpose and priorities of life don't change. The key difference is between things that move us ahead and things that we are persuaded that we should do and have: smart phones, distractions of all kinds, half-done,incomplete projects,and trying to multi task all of this. There is no easy way to run a business.

We do our best, achieve our peak performance when things re clean, simple, and straight forward.

Get out a pad of paper and start a list.

• what are two or three goals or priorities you would like to accomplish in the 2 months
• where are you putting the bulk of your time now
• how are you going to get to these goals

Don't let the clutter of life get in the way of your goals. Being busy is not the same as being productive.


Being busy is not the same as being productive.

Upstream

6x6

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Price: $125 USD plus $10 USD s/h

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"Simplify. Simplify. Simplify. Let your affairs be counted
on the fingers of one hand."
     --  Henry David Thoreau


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The Sting of Rejections

Thomas Kinkad died at age 54.

The mainstream art world ridiculed Thomas Kinkade. Like the French Impressionist he received scorn and had trouble getting into exhibitions and museums.

 Thomas Kinkade might have known how the French Impressionist felt. The American artist who died earlier this month was, despite his commercial success,was derided by the official art world. He had no presence in museums, most of which politely avoided comment on his death.

The comparisons end there to the French painters. He would of course overcome skepticism of his work to become one of the most beloved artists of all time. Some estimate that he was making over $100 million from image merchandise per year, and was a household name. Point blank -- Kinkade  has been estimated to have his prints in 1 out of 20 homes in the United States.

Did I like his work, it doesn't matter, my point is:

      Kinkade -- when alive -- took all the criticism in stride. He knew that he had a legion of fans,was making millions of dollars from his art (some estimate that he was making over $100 million from image merchandise per year), and was a household name.

Here is one statement made by a critique:
Kinkade isn’t content with shying away from ugliness: He sees nothing beautiful in the world the way it is. He thinks it needs polishing. He loves the world in the same way that a pageant mom thinks her child is just adorable—or will be, after she loses ten pounds, dyes and curls her hair, gets implants, and makes herself almost unrecognizable with a thick layer of make-up. Normal people recoil from such extreme artifice—not because they hate beauty, but because they love it.
To read more click here

Wow that had to sting.

So the next time your work is: rejected form a show, a gallery turns you down for representation, an art critic doesn't give your work the best review: think of Thomas Kinkade. I am sure he laughed all the way to the bank.

Put it behind you and go out and make art that inspired you.Make the best art you know how and develop a thick skin.


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