How To Become A Better Painter
Students ask me all the time....."How do I paint like that?" I can only imagine how many painters throughout history asked the same question....repeatedly, to their mentors, their teachers, their friends, in their own heads...they asked it. I can also hear the answer given as if it was a never ending echo that binds all artists. Paint....just go paint and practice, practice, practice.
Yes, you can take a class, you can practice techniques until you are blue in the face, in fact, I hope you paint yourself with a blue face working on those techniques, it would be fabulous, but seriously, the key to becoming a better painter is to paint, often, daily, and sketch as well. There is one more thing I would add to that as a caveat of sorts.....give yourself the freedom to make a complete mess.
There are voices we put in our own heads such as, "I can't draw," "I can't paint," I will never be good enough." I do it, everyone does it, but there must come a point in our artistic journey that we have to silence those voices...harshly, and put them to rest. We must replace them with these, every day we seek to create:
"I WILL EMBRACE THE PROCESS, NOT THE PRODUCT."
"I WILL GIVE MYSELF PERMISSION TO MAKE A MESS."
"MESSES ARE ACTUALLY THE BEST WAY TO LEARN."
"I AM AN ARTIST, I AM CAPABLE OF THIS JOURNEY, I WILL BE SUCCESSFUL IN GROWING, EVOLVING, AND ENJOYING MY CREATIVE PATH."
But we all must first do the work~
The paintings you see here are me...making a mess out of frustration. I am fascinated by the act of mark making, with fingers, with tools, with objects, with paint. I am also way beyond frustrated with some neighbors as well, so I first gave myself permission to just play with the paints and marks.
I then gave myself permission to make mud in places...oh lawd, the dreaded mud!
I then imagined throwing eggs on their head.
And I then covered most of it up and wrote my frustration out as marks.
I have no clue what I will do with this, but that wasn't the point. The point was, I explored color, value, marks, transparency, negative acrylic painting, all the while imagining eggs dripping down the heads of some certain folks who I pray for often, lololol.
The painting is simply that....a painting of practice and if I am ever to become a better painter I need to paint at least a 1,000 of these or so....
Go forth and make marks friends, paint, write, create, make a mess, and we will all celebrate our crap art together with the knowledge that we have invested time in ourselves and our creative gifts. :) Peace to you friends, so glad we are on this path together, and I promise....no egg throwing your way!
Yes, you can take a class, you can practice techniques until you are blue in the face, in fact, I hope you paint yourself with a blue face working on those techniques, it would be fabulous, but seriously, the key to becoming a better painter is to paint, often, daily, and sketch as well. There is one more thing I would add to that as a caveat of sorts.....give yourself the freedom to make a complete mess.
There are voices we put in our own heads such as, "I can't draw," "I can't paint," I will never be good enough." I do it, everyone does it, but there must come a point in our artistic journey that we have to silence those voices...harshly, and put them to rest. We must replace them with these, every day we seek to create:
"I WILL EMBRACE THE PROCESS, NOT THE PRODUCT."
"I WILL GIVE MYSELF PERMISSION TO MAKE A MESS."
"MESSES ARE ACTUALLY THE BEST WAY TO LEARN."
"I AM AN ARTIST, I AM CAPABLE OF THIS JOURNEY, I WILL BE SUCCESSFUL IN GROWING, EVOLVING, AND ENJOYING MY CREATIVE PATH."
But we all must first do the work~
The paintings you see here are me...making a mess out of frustration. I am fascinated by the act of mark making, with fingers, with tools, with objects, with paint. I am also way beyond frustrated with some neighbors as well, so I first gave myself permission to just play with the paints and marks.
I then gave myself permission to make mud in places...oh lawd, the dreaded mud!
I then imagined throwing eggs on their head.
And I then covered most of it up and wrote my frustration out as marks.
"
I Could Throw Eggs" 8" by 5" acrylic and charcoal on paper
DETAIL SHOT
I have no clue what I will do with this, but that wasn't the point. The point was, I explored color, value, marks, transparency, negative acrylic painting, all the while imagining eggs dripping down the heads of some certain folks who I pray for often, lololol.
The painting is simply that....a painting of practice and if I am ever to become a better painter I need to paint at least a 1,000 of these or so....
Go forth and make marks friends, paint, write, create, make a mess, and we will all celebrate our crap art together with the knowledge that we have invested time in ourselves and our creative gifts. :) Peace to you friends, so glad we are on this path together, and I promise....no egg throwing your way!