Painting is really hard.

I've been struggling trying to learn how to paint for the last 16 months or so. It's really tough. I keep cranking out terrible painting after terrible painting. Each painting you see on the blog, each one that I feel good enough about that I don't mind people looking at, has about 15-20 failed studies behind it. In fact, I did four or five poor ones today. Doing the studies is how you develop the skills to become better. My drawings are very advanced because I have done thousands of drawings over the last 7 years to develop that skill. I've got stacks of drawings laying around the house. Stacks.

Beware anytime somebody say they've found a "secret". There's no secret. Or if there is a secret, the "secret" is "lots of work" combined with "conscious learning". You can't just work and you can't just learn, you've got to learn, then apply, then learn from what you just applied, and then apply again. Isn't that the definition of wisdom? Applied knowledge.

So remember, this stuff is hard. Lots of stuff in life is hard. Human nature is to take the easy way. Being an American tells us that life should be easy. Tell me one good thing that was easy, and worthwhile? Nothing. Everything worthwhile takes work. Everything worthwhile is hard. If your life is easy, or if the task you are working on is easy, you should step back and reevaluate yourself before you drift into meaninglessness.

Painting at Teanaway Conservancy.

Sunny and 40 degrees, it was a good day for painting. 11''x14''

Art has a purpose? Who knew?

Check these guys out. They're doing great work! http://www.rta-arts.org/

Clouds

 8''x10''

9''x12''

Bold Brush Painting Contest this month

http://faso.com/boldbrush/painting/25741

If you like the painting, and have facebook, please like it; helps to get a little more exposure on the contest website. Thanks!

A few new paintings

8''x10''. Clouds over Auburn

16''x20''. Lake Meridian

11''x14'' Stimson Greene Mansion

"Artist" is not a job. Artist is a lifestyle.

 Hey everyone, thanks for continually checking out the blog. I've been thinking a little lately about living as an artist. I think the artist (and by artist, I mean the lifestyle. It's a way of life, it's not a career) has several things they should be doing at all time that carry them forward, always growing as a person. Some people don't do their art full time, maybe they work a job and do art in spare time, so can they be an artist? Absolutely, it's not something you arrive at. It's either something you are, right now, or are not. The more you live as the artist, the more powerful you will become as a person. Here's a few ways that the artist lives:

- Understand yourself and the world. You've got to become a philosopher. You need to understand why you draw but you also need to understand what you want to say with what you draw, and also you need to try to understand living so you have something to say. The most technical draftsman who has nothing to say is worthless.

- Get technical knowledge. You have to know how to use the tools you want to use. Learn from copying masters, learn from books or DVDs, and learn from somebody who knows (go learn from an artist you respect).

- Practice often. Take the knowledge you have and apply it to problems that are in front of you.

- Work often. This differs from practice in the end goal. The end goal of practice is to learn. The end goal of work is to get the result that you are looking for. Let go of things you know and let the emotions come out as you fly toward that result you're looking for.

- Eliminate most fear in your life. You cannot be afraid to fail. You cannot be afraid to try. You cannot be concerned with what other people think. The artist who considers what other people want to see or listen to creates a work of art they have already seen. Be careful though, it's not about novelty. It's not uniqueness for the sake of uniqueness. I am the only me who will ever exist in the history of existence. If I take the time to develop myself, develop my skills, and develop my life then anything I create will be, by default, something nobody has ever seen before. It's like handwriting. We all use the same alphabet. We all learn how to write. But all of our handwriting is so unique, even moreso over time, because we eventually do what works and let what we want to come out. So it is with many other things; so it is with art. Trying to be different (for the sake of being different) causes a person to throw out all the best things about themselves, their true uniqueness, in favor of the outlandishly bizarre. If you can focus on being yourself, you will be so inherently different than anyone else that any effort to do something different is unneccesary. The difference is automatic.

Keep up the good work, peeps! Hope you're kicking some ass!

M