Here are some of my paintings on canvas. Appropriate to the season. Done in acrylics... based on digital photos and usually painted in just a few hours time. I only use those cheap bristle chinese brushes from the hardware store. They leave great brushstrokes... very expressive. I just can't seem to get the hang of filberts. It's so refreshing to just paint a canvas without worrying about a complicated narrative story to be told.
I decided that for me, painting on canvas without any objective other than to paint is kind of like sipping champagne with the Artwork. Contrarily, doing illustration on deadline to a set of art specs, solving complicated narrative problems on tracing paper is more like doing the taxes for the Artwork. It might be more profitable... but it's just not as much fun!
Hey... I think that's pretty funny!
When Picasso painted a canvas, he didn't first have to submit sketches for approval. Picasso didn't have to rely on a printer to see the final output of his paintings. Picasso didn't need someone else to validate his art.
Lucky for Picasso, he just painted...
Sometimes it almost seems like we need publishers to supply our affirmation that we are really valid artists. If they don't affirm our talents, then it seems like we've failed. But it only seems that way... in fact it's not that way at all.
But hey, Van Gogh had the same problem. I just watched a great DVD... 'Vincent' with John Hurt doing the narration. Great movie about making art... but I realized I have a lot in common with Van Gogh when it comes to discussing art. Seems like there's lots of striving, angst and inner turmoil involved in making art... even when you're just drawing cartoons!
I think Van Gogh was the Posterboy for all artists to come. Imagine the irony of dying of poverty essentially... and now his paintings fetch the highest prices of any in the art world. I suppose making living by any form of art isn't for the feint hearted.
Regardless, it seems everyone wants to be an artist. I like those Lotto commercials where they show the millionaire Lotto winners out on the beach, painting a landscape. Luckily you don't have to wait to win the Lotto for that! But I do think everyone could benefit by being a painter... or doing something creative. Lucky for us artists we can sometimes do it for a living.
