Like being paid to eat ice cream.
For those fortunate enough to be able to make a living in the arts sometimes we need take a step back and realize how blessed we are. As I heared Richard Schmid say once, "it is like being paid to eat ice cream". Who would disagree.
This is not to say, at least for me. that this is always fun because it isn't always fun. Sometimes it isn't fun at all. It is not relaxing either unless your shrink suggested that you take it up. To be completely honest it is damn hard work, no way around it. In fact if you are having too much fun you probably aren't paying attention. It is however satisfying and fulfilling especially after an honest effort.
I just spent the last 5 days in the Canadian Rockies with a couple of painter friends from BC and Alberta, Jerry Markham and Doug Swinton a couple of talented young painters you'll be hearing great things from, in the near future. There really is nothing as enjoyable as spending a few days painting with friends but it is still hard as hell.
To set your easel up in front of the majesty of the untouched virgin wilderness is so humbling that it is hard to believe that you've been given the honor of trying to express your reaction to what you are witnessing. You work there the entire day and produce 2 or 3 studies, working as fast as you can laying in the large forms and light patterns, pushing, pulling, comparing values, temperature, drawing, redrawing, scraping the whole thing off, starting over, correcting mistakes. Finally you've run out of time and you take your sketches back to the motel. Realizing immediately that you've come in second to mother nature. You accept the small victory that even in defeat you've done the best you can, and tomorrow we'll do better. And so it goes day after day.
You wonder sometimes if you will ever win. At times you wonder if you are ever going to get any closer to honoring the scene before you, until one day you turn back and look over your shoulder and you realize you've come much farther than you thought, in fact you now know you've come too far to turn back. So you go on and try again and again and eventually the satisfaction gets greater with each effort.
The last night we set all the paintings up in the motel room and critiqued each effort. One more plate of humble pie, however even that is satisfying to know we have each learned a few things that will push us a little higher tomorrow. As difficult as painting outdoors is there is no where else I'd rather work all the answers stand right before you. You may need to move some things around but it is still all right there in front of you. A bit like taking an open book test.
It is not until you look at your efforts a few months later and realize you've brought more home in a few studies than all of your photographs, this is when you know the true value of painting on the spot.
We also find comfort in knowing that if this were easy the streets would be lined with Rembrandts.
Wm. F. Reese
This is not to say, at least for me. that this is always fun because it isn't always fun. Sometimes it isn't fun at all. It is not relaxing either unless your shrink suggested that you take it up. To be completely honest it is damn hard work, no way around it. In fact if you are having too much fun you probably aren't paying attention. It is however satisfying and fulfilling especially after an honest effort.
I just spent the last 5 days in the Canadian Rockies with a couple of painter friends from BC and Alberta, Jerry Markham and Doug Swinton a couple of talented young painters you'll be hearing great things from, in the near future. There really is nothing as enjoyable as spending a few days painting with friends but it is still hard as hell.
To set your easel up in front of the majesty of the untouched virgin wilderness is so humbling that it is hard to believe that you've been given the honor of trying to express your reaction to what you are witnessing. You work there the entire day and produce 2 or 3 studies, working as fast as you can laying in the large forms and light patterns, pushing, pulling, comparing values, temperature, drawing, redrawing, scraping the whole thing off, starting over, correcting mistakes. Finally you've run out of time and you take your sketches back to the motel. Realizing immediately that you've come in second to mother nature. You accept the small victory that even in defeat you've done the best you can, and tomorrow we'll do better. And so it goes day after day.
You wonder sometimes if you will ever win. At times you wonder if you are ever going to get any closer to honoring the scene before you, until one day you turn back and look over your shoulder and you realize you've come much farther than you thought, in fact you now know you've come too far to turn back. So you go on and try again and again and eventually the satisfaction gets greater with each effort.
The last night we set all the paintings up in the motel room and critiqued each effort. One more plate of humble pie, however even that is satisfying to know we have each learned a few things that will push us a little higher tomorrow. As difficult as painting outdoors is there is no where else I'd rather work all the answers stand right before you. You may need to move some things around but it is still all right there in front of you. A bit like taking an open book test.
It is not until you look at your efforts a few months later and realize you've brought more home in a few studies than all of your photographs, this is when you know the true value of painting on the spot.
We also find comfort in knowing that if this were easy the streets would be lined with Rembrandts.
Wm. F. Reese
Dear Bill, (if I may use your "first name?)
Thank you for your truthfullness--in that "Painting" is hard-work! It certainly is for me, though I've found that I "Can't not do it"! It is comforting to know that YOU struggle, too!
Carol in Walla Walla
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Carol
The longer I do this the more I struggle. The harder I work the luckier I get but I still continue to get farther from my goals. At the same time no matter how hard it gets it is always satisfying and worth the efort.
Bill
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Thanks, Bill. Another article we all identify with because we all struggle. It's amazing how deeply satisfying a little bit of progress can be.
You touched on critiques. Please expand on that. Your critiques are always incisive, honest, impersonal, and worth gold, but getting a good critique is difficult. First, it's hard to get others to agree to a critique and then many artists are so steeped in the self-esteem philosophy that they won't cite anything negative. How do you think we should weigh critiques by artists in whose works we can see blatant errors? And most of all, how do we know when our own ego getting in the way?
Best,
Susan Greaves
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Susan,
I'll take this question a little at a time. First off we often get critiques and don't know it, and from people we don't necessarily think are qualified. Yet if a pedestrian off the street looks at our work and doesn't get it. You've just been critiqued and it's time to think about what you've said and how you've said it. Now this person can't tell you how to fix it but they will let you know when something is wrong. I used to take my horse sculptures to the race track and have jockeys tell me what they could see that was wrong. I would have the horse shoer check them out, as well as the veterinarian. Any one I could think of even the UPS driver. What I found is that they each had a valid view point. What one needs to always be aware of however, is the fact that to a hammer salesman everything looks like a nail. Each will see what they know and that is all they will see. So our job is to reach a state of correctness and a form of communication that reaches and satisfies them all.
I'm sure however what you are looking for is a critique from another artist hopefully one you might consider a mentor. I've found that if tell them what I want, is to find the negatives for me, I can identify the positives by my self, they will at least try. Painting and designing signs for 13 years helped me learn to be aware of how the eye was tracking the surface of the painting. Where the eye was allowed to move and when it was stopped. When, where, and how the eye became trapped and when and where the eye wanted to get out and move on to the next painting. What element will be read first, second, and third. It taught me that when something appears wrong it may indeed be right, if you correct something else instead.
In general my feeling about giving critiques is first of all it is a gift and must always be given that way, It should always be constructive and personalities should always be set aside. This is not about building self esteem in the short term at least, if one is honest self esteem will be improved down the road when it matters most. I have always thought that false praise was about the cruelist thing one could do. Besides mentioning the positive is like preaching to the choir unless of course it's the first time they've ever got it right. Mostly I am looking for mistakes in execution or more importantly errors in the thought process. Once the errors are identified I like to recommend exercises that will change this.
In short all critiques can be good but we must always factor in the source when we decide whether they are correct or not.
How should we weigh critiques by artists in whose works we can see blatant errors? I would say listen to them as well after all just because they got it wrong doesn't mean they are not correct about your's. If they have already stepped in that puddle they may just be right when they tell you to step over it. I've seen mistakes in museums by master painters that I would welcome listening to if I just had a time machine.
You also asked about ones ego getting in the way. I can see two chances for that, if we find our ego stepping forward when we are giving a critique then we really aren't presenting knowledge and insight as a gift, we are instead merely rubbing their nose in their own failure. Don't be surprised if they quit asking for any help. If our ego becomes involved when we are receiving a critique then we weren't really looking for help, we were looking for false praise. When I see this happening I just tell them to call their mother because she'll be happy to praise their efforts and she would probably love to talk with them anyway.
One of the best sign painters I ever worked with taught me this. When ever you have a question ask everyone you come in contact with because you never really know which one will know the answer. He would even ask the janitor. Because of this lesson I have always been willing to trade every thing I know for everything everybody else knows eventually I will have access to more knowledge than I will be able to remember. Thinking this way leaves absolutely no place for an unhealthy ego.
Wm. F. Reese
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