In this article on oil painting techniques, I want to explain how to overcome inertia and how to begin a work. My reference is primarily to abstract oil painting but the same principles apply even to architecture and music.
It is a misconception to believe that a work must be completely worked out to begin. This is a fallacy and prevents many young artists from creating. After all, if we are to be artists we must paint and we must paint often. The technique is to consider your painting in two, distinct steps. The first is to put down the initial idea, the rough concept. Do so with the intent of getting the piece begun and put out of your mind the idea of completion.
In a drag painting I use this process. The initial thrust is considerable. First of all you need to block out time, you need to have gathered the right materials, there cannot be distractions and there needs to be at least a concept in mind. All of this requires a certain amount of energy and planning. This is the first phase of the work. Trying to think through the entire process and the second phase is too overwhelming. It is not necessary. Tackle the first phase first and get it down on canvas or board.
The second phase comes later. I usually spend a good deal of time studying the first, initial thrust. By now I have a better idea of where I was going and what I was trying to achieve. My sub-conscious has been awakened again and I can now visualize at least a partial manifestation.
ALso too, and this is the great mystery, the painting begins to dictate itself. It begins to have a voice of its own. This is the other reason to break out your painting in these two phases – to allow the work itself to define. This is why we study our work. I have a photo of Picasso standing in front of a painting partially completed. He has no brush in hand. He is just standing and studying. He is to me, letting the painting speak to him. Gerhardt Richter will always bring a painting (supposedly complete) into another well lit, white walled room. He will over a course of weeks go into that room and study it. He is deciding if in fact the painting accomplished what he had purposed or if there is something else that needs manifestation.
I will often find that a paintings contrast can be enhanced or a certain design element made stronger or an area is too weak and can be made more dynamic. This is the advantage in using this method of constructing paintings in these two phases. The important thing is always to begin. This method provides a means to overcome initial inertia and to get started.
It is possible, to some degree to remove the mystery in starting an abstract painting. There are painters who suggest it is a magical and spontaneous affair, that it cannot be defined and that the process cannot be understood. In my own experience I do not find this to be the case. Kandinsky broke down his own work into several ‘categories’. When we read how he separated these categories it is clear that he was identifying the process.
