Inherited talent or not.

In all those times when I feel down on myself, have no belief in my ability and think I will never be able to paint (there are a lot more of these times than I would wish for), one of the negative thoughts that come knocking at my door is that good old one that says I have no inherited talent.
Three times in the space of the last week I have heard refreshing opinions that could alter that view.

 Danny Gregory, in his book 'The Creative License,' says that 'the ability to draw is not inherited any more than the ability to speak French.' Immediately I read this I thought, 'Oh yeah, what about all those amazing artists that have children who also become amazing artists,' but he goes on to say that 'children of "talented" parents are simply more likely to be born with permission to draw.' I liked this idea, and it almost seemed to be backed up for me when later in the week I went to a lecture led by Kurt Jackson, a well known contemporary artist living in Cornwall who explained his child life. He said that both his parents were art teachers and were always most interested in what he was doing in art at school and making sure that above all he did his art homework.

An illustrator, George Butler, www.georgebutler.org, says that his Mum was an artist so he watched her as he was growing up but feels that drawing is something he has 'learned to do rather than something I felt I had a natural talent for.'

These are all great opinions but then a further article in the May  issue of Artist & Illustrators really caught my eye. It is entitled 'Forget Talent, Develop Grit.'  In this article the latest neuroscientific research is described as in Daniel Coyle's book 'The Talent Code,' - he describes that they have found that a substance called myelin is wrapped around curcuit pathways in the brain as they are used. The more myelin that a circuit has the more efficient that circuit becomes, and it increases as a skill is practised. Back to what all my art teachers used to say that it is 1% talent and 99% work.

Practise in making a modular composition

Line in Acrylics

I have just had a fun day experimenting with line.

On a video about The St Ives School of Art Steve Dove talks about "Finding Your Line" - at https://vimeo.com/79409287

Finding and knowing your line in art at the moment to me seems akin to knowing your identity; knowing and living in the person you have been made to be....(another life lesson I am learning alongside the process of making art.)

 Back to the art practise; Dove suggests that to find your line practise with all kinds of media. For sometime I have been unhappy with the kind of scratchy, clumsy line I usually am able to make but last week I was able to make a little discovery which transformed line for me.

And this is it - in the bottom left. I bought a synthetic long handled paint brush. I have always used hog hair as I thought they were the best but have only just realised that for acrylics synthetic brushes work better. What I have learnt in my experimentation is that if you mix a heavy bodied acrylic with an equal amount of water and gloss medium to make a fluidy creamy consistency and work it into the brush, this will make a really good fluid line. Alternatively, using the high flow paints (I use Golden) with a drop of water will also make a good fluid line.

Above I also discovered other ways of making line. The pot shape on the right is where I have painted an inner shape and an outer one to leave an area where the underneath colour comes through and acts as a line. I notice Van Gogh does this around his chair.

In the reproduction it is difficult to see, but when I saw it at The National Gallery, you can see that some of the line around the chair is an outlined black line and some of it is made by allowing colour to come through from the underneath which adds variety to the overall view.

 I also took Dove's advice and used various media; - ink, watercolour crayons, oil pastel, pen - and now, to get back to play!

Artistic Freedom

A  person cannot freely say yes if they do not have the freedom to say no. Life is showing me this and I am also learning it through art, so in my painting experience I thought I would take the time to write down  aspects of this truth that are being shown to me.

If I am not free to mess up then I am not free to advance.

If I am not free to make bad art then I can't live in the confidence that each day is new and sometimes the results will be better than others.

If I am not free to make things that are for nobody's eye but mine then I am living with a performance mentality that inhibits creativity.

If I have to fit in with a particular style enforced by others or myself then I will lose the ability to be an individual.

If I live to please others I am not free to be myself.

I have been inspired by Richard Diebenkorn who painted in many different styles seemingly unconcerned about how this might hinder his reputation as an artist and probably without giving in to possible pressure of galleries who sometimes want more of the same. As for the supposed conflict between abstraction and figuration he concluded in 1985, 'Finally it is all the same thing.' Because he was free to follow the way his artistic muse led he was able to bring all aspects of his painting together so that one style fed into another, and most importantly of all, he achieved what only he could do.

Finding my own art voice.

Last week I learnt an amazing lesson by going shopping. Some might say, well yes, a bit of retail therapy is always good! But this was retail therapy with a difference.

I went into a shop and thought a top looked great. It had little pretty flowers on it.  I envisioned it on my friend Hannah and knew it would look fantastic. It was the sort of thing I have often seen her in and admired her dress sense. I tried it on and was surprised that I didn't like it at all on me. I then went into another shop and found a top. I didn't even bother to try it on as I just imagined seeing that beautiful flowing top, the kind my friend Jane wears, on her, and knew it was exactly what I needed. I bought it, went home, and tried it on. Again I was really surprised at how uncomfortable it made me feel; really not my style at all. My husband confirmed this when he said I looked like I was in a nurses uniform and had just come off my shift.

In art, a lack of confidence can cause me  to see and copy how other artists are doing it.(There is a place for learning in copying but this is another conversation) I try this way like this popular artist, but when I do it it just looks clumsy, or that way, because that looks great when they do it, but I feel bored with it before I have even finished the picture. I struggle to be fantastic the way I see they are. This is my dilemma!

Today though, I choose to be different. Today I choose to be unique, because all of us are. If we don't put time and energy into developing our own creative voice, we are robbing the world of it, as there is only one of us.Whether we are ever known or not, ever great or not, I am robbing mostly me whenever I choose to mould myself to be like another artist. So today I choose to remember the words of Oscar Wilde 'Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.' There is a truth in the unique voice, which is probably what we are recognising in those other artists we love so much. There is also a nakedness in it, so today, instead of wearing clothes that are just not me,  I take the path of nakedness!!