100 in 100: Everyday Musical and A Walk in the Park
In the course of creating 100 paintings, there were more imperfect paintings than natural gems, but that doesn’t mean those paintings don’t have value.
I found some amazing paintings along the way – but I struggled a lot. It is tricky to take the magic captured in a split second of time and translate it into a painting. With these two, I loved my photo references, but I had all sorts of compositional issues. And colour issues… and, and, and….
And I haven’t resolved them.
Sometimes, you have to know when to call it a day, and move on. Moving on doesn’t mean crumpling up the page and throwing it away, though. I find that I hold on to paintings and come back to them. Sometimes I am just as horrified by them as I was when I put them away, but other times I have learned enough, logged enough miles on my brushes and failed at other things enough that I can start to see solutions. Other times I take them out to the driveway and run them over with my car to see if that gives me a different perspective. 🙂 – I am only half kidding. But when you aren’t so attached to the size and shape of your painting new options open up. You can cut off the bad parts. It feels a little bit like writing in books, but once you realize that fire doesn’t fall from heaven and consume you, a little bit of courage builds up.
Some of my paintings are just learning experiences, not destined for greatness, but for the recycling bin. And that’s ok too.
I’m part of the camp that says – It is ok AND even necessary to let people see your imperfect work. I hope that if you are out there, creating work that it helps you to see the raw stuff.
Be willing to make bad art. ALOT of bad art. Art that you don’t love. The art I struggle through is the art I learn through. I’ve come to recognize the growing pains.
2 responses to “100 in 100: Everyday Musical and A Walk in the Park”
I share your art-creation philosophy exactly….and if u look at my blog you will see proof; there is some miserable stuff up there. But I often find people like the stuff i dislike. Sometimes I post items that I thought had no value and peeps “like” them more than the stuff i think is good! Same here maybe, i really like this painting of yours.
Hi Brian, Thanks for your note 🙂 I did drop by your blog and I have to say that I love your sketches. Your line work has a lot of life and energy in it! Here’s to telling it like it is!