Latest posts by michael wilson (see all)
- JORDAN RIVER - February 5, 2019
- Inspired Art - August 2, 2018
- Waiting for Inspiration - July 31, 2018
- The Bridge between Painting and Photography - July 31, 2018
For the beginner and the intermediate painter, painting canvases which are at best, average is to be expected. There is no point or need to be overly frustrated. There are just too many components to a successful painting to be frustrated or dissapointed with your efforts. Many of your paintings will be just average, and this may go on for years, depending on how much time you put in to your work.
Painting average…might be more easily described as practicing a score the way a musician does when learning a new piece. There are a lot of mis-steps, of course. For the musician there is needed very repetitive practice. This is true of the dancer as well. It is true for the two – dimensional painter as well…practice over and over. You will inevitably find that there are some things you are doing quite well. You are learning how to mix pigments with more refinement. You now know just exactly how Cerulean Blue is different from Thalo blue and where best to use Prussian Blue. Your knowledge of brushes and your ability to use the correct brush for various applications is inevitably becoming better.
There are multiple disciplines to learn and until they are mastered at least in part, a painting will of course appear quite average. It seems that in spite of years of practice a mature artist must suffer through paintings which are not as desired or conceived – but this too is as expected. I tend to view my art in terms of passages or sections and work to refine each of those independently before weaving the whole together. This does work sometime. I might be very pleased with several passages in a painting and quite frustrated with others. The important thing is to not become disheartened and to think of your work as practice.