Why paint (2)?

There is a brilliant blog entry (as usual - it's a most wonderful blog) on  "Illustration Art" on the transience of life/art and the motivation to do anything - and the comments to it comprise a fabulous discussion. I'd rather read his (David"s)  blog than play Wi in my bathrobe, any day! - highly recommended. (He also shows a picture by the Provensens - a couple who, among other things, illustrated children's books - I've still have my copy of "Myths and Legends" - and the pictures still grip me as much as when I was 7 years old!)

Art videos/DVDS

Yep, well, like I said - there's a real amount of stuff on the net - between 'Look inside" on Amazon and video extracts on YoutTube/free demos put up by painters - it's a wonder anyone buys anything. I've got a few video DVDs - not so many - about 10. I love watching these sort of videos,

There are 3/4 basic types of approach:

1) The artist is extremely well-known (and usually highly personable) - so the video basically consists in 'being with' them while they produce a work and chat to you/the audience about technique, art and anything else that pops into their head - this sort of video is usually not very 'scripted' - the 'off-the-cuff style being preferred - probably because this is felt to make it more natural etc. etc. Either you see pretty well every gesture to make one work, or 2) it's edited and you see them do a number a works

3) The artist has a large amount of teaching experience or a well-defined process/approach and presents it/ 4) part of it ( lesson 1 in a 3 part series)/applied to a certain type of subject (e.g. portraits, skies...)

A link from a reader on Gurney Journey (to a gamut masking tool) took me over to Richard Robinson's site - very  nice - I purchased his videos and they're excellent - for beginner and intermediate levels (yuk, but true), very pleased indeed with them - here's someone who's done the work - this is how it should be done! - hope he does some more

Back to basics

Well, I received and viewed the Ingbretson DVD on drawing. Concidentally, Stapleton Kearns, on his wonderful blog, mentioned that most 'hobbyists' (don't think he used that awful term) don't have the drawing 'chops' (nice term) - not me, of course. Oh no, wait! It is me - I think I'll take some time off painting to draw.

Tomorrow I think I'll review about art videos/DVDs in general - they're fairly expensive, but I love them. Don't know how anyone manages to sell anything with all the great stuff for free on the net! See you, then!

Struggling

with it here. Got to hang on in there. I tell myself "it's just for fun, take it as it comes"

Anyway, I've ordered the Ingbretson DVD "The Visual Order" - on drawing - and discovered a couple of nice artists on the net: Doug Braithwaite and Rick McClure (the latter thanks to "An Expressive Artist Studio" blog)

Tell myself my motivation is that I do this (painting) for fun (pleasure) and the only goal is to improve - for my own satisfaction

Test: is it a good painting?

We see thousands of images.

Even for an artist we like (and could instantly identify if we saw a picture by them), we have favourite images. And from the artists view point - even the greats have moments of grace - special works.

We can appraise an image pretty quickl - it's all there in front of us, the eye is fast.

But when I ask myself, "How many paintings by artist x (hey, let's say Soralla) can I bring up in my mind?", it can be surprising how few (if any!)

A great image (on a personal level) is, I feel, one that stays forever in your mind.

(see my comments on those 2 Michel De Gallard paintings I've loved so much - because they have a particular meaning for me (induce a dream-like trance!), for one thing and I love the paint surface, for another. Like I said above, once we go past the critical bit - get to lave a painting - it's special to us - well, another one I like is Bryce Cameron Liston's 'In the Stillness' he entered it in the last ARC competition - you can see it e.g. on their site in the entries for the competition)

Thick paint and impatience

I seem to be finding out that you need to paint confidently with decisive, bold stokes (I think the best way to put it, is that they have to have "energy" - and I love the idea of a "juicy" paint surface). But I've noticed that once the paint gets thick, my stokes had better be careful - thick paint can easily go wrong!

- so, what I think I've realised is - 1) I can either leave the painting, just leave it a good while to dry (I hated t do this up till now - some fear of losing the motivation to finish it, I guess)

or 

2) scrape off the thick paint - just scrape it off (sometimes using the knife on it to manipulate it or scrape it off seems to result in the desired effect - Richard Schmid says something about that in his first video).

4 painters (poets, in fact) I really like

 Well painting may need some sort of "narrative", may be a means of expression (= language), but it can be poetry. Check out these 4 artists:

Alex
Sandra
Bill
Chelsea