Also please check out my second blog, The Painting Archives to see older (pre-2004) paintings for sale.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
thought for a studio day
My painter friend Mark Horton paid a studio visit today and offered the following thought...in creating art, when one acheives a balance of a play with serious intent, creative flow is acheived.
For me, "play" in this case includes enjoying the paint (its colors and sensuous qualities,) thinking up new ways to use it (recently I have been getting a kick out of some rubber squeegees from the hardware store) and being open to surprises. It's trying new ideas without wondering too much about the outcome, just curious to see what will happen. It's the energy you feel when you're entertaining yourself without much thought of what anyone else will think.
As for serious intent, that's when ideas and concepts become important, and holding oneself to a high standard. It's considering what a viewer will gain from the painting. It's when you analyze with a critical eye and understand the need to make a deliberate change, or when you steer a painting in a certain direction that is dictated by meaning as much as by what pleases the eye. It's the energy that comes finishing a painting that has presence and coherence.
How amazing that all of these currents can and do come together, at least on a good painting day! ¶ 11:48 AM
For me, "play" in this case includes enjoying the paint (its colors and sensuous qualities,) thinking up new ways to use it (recently I have been getting a kick out of some rubber squeegees from the hardware store) and being open to surprises. It's trying new ideas without wondering too much about the outcome, just curious to see what will happen. It's the energy you feel when you're entertaining yourself without much thought of what anyone else will think.
As for serious intent, that's when ideas and concepts become important, and holding oneself to a high standard. It's considering what a viewer will gain from the painting. It's when you analyze with a critical eye and understand the need to make a deliberate change, or when you steer a painting in a certain direction that is dictated by meaning as much as by what pleases the eye. It's the energy that comes finishing a painting that has presence and coherence.
How amazing that all of these currents can and do come together, at least on a good painting day! ¶ 11:48 AM
