RESTATING YOUR ART WORK

So I have now completed an oil painting course to paint like the old masters...if it is at all possible! The course was focusing in particular on Rembrandt with the Apelles palette. I found it very interesting and challenging. So I also busy now with a classical portrait drawing course.
Restating your ART WORK means to me to seriously reconsider what you are doing and what else you would like to do - not out of compulsion or what the market likes or what people tell you. It is really what you want to do - almost in a very selfish manner.
Do that.
But at the same time as doing that do not neglect training and studying or even giving classes. I am also giving classes to some art students and develop a course myself. Because by doing that you also hone your own skills and develop more. Almost incidental without noticing it. Stay busy.
Restating in the final end means to commit to a body of work and to WORK at you art. WORK!

REPAINTING OR REDOING YOUR OLD PAINTINGS

I have a lot of old oil paintings that I have not sold. It accumulates every year and after a while it is paintings everywhere. What must I do? My first action was if I cannot sell it destroy it? Or give it away. Have a sale! I gave some paintings away fro free to my friends and I always give paintings as presents to others.
But even so many paintings remain for a very long time with me. Obviously some paintings I can hang in my own dwelling but there are still left over.
So here is what you can do:
1. Seriously look at the painting – is it worthy art?
2. Conjure up in you mind criticism of people in the past and add some of your own.
3. Rethink the idea, story, composition, colours etc. of the painting.
With this in mind you have to decide :
1. Keep it as it is – it could be a present for somebody or hang on your own wall (if you have the luxury of your own gallery...the ideal!)
2. Destroy it – it is not worth it!
3. Correct it based on the three questions above.
Obviously now the question is how do I redo the painting or enhance and change it?
THE FIRST STEP – Sand down the area where you think the composition is wrong – the structural correction of the painting.
THE SECOND STEP – Repaint that area – give attention to first apply some linseed oil and turps to the area before painting. Try and paint it with the same palette as in the past.
THE THIRD STEP – Re-evaluate the painting again. Now the composition is corrected and the flow of your eye over the painting is adjusted. Correct this until the eye is happy!
THE FOURTH STEP – Criticism in the past with regards to colour...Should you enhance the colour to a brighter expression or a more classical expression or just stay within a certain range f colours (monochrome painting). Brighter colours normally influence people easily but the art is also seldom art that lasts because too bright is just not real unless the reality of what you painted is in fact very bright. These choices are your own to make.
THE FIFTH STEP – For me is now to at first leave the painting for a while, but put it in such a place that you can see it daily. Study it and make some small recommendations to yourself. Once you are finished studying it, make the recommended changes. You can go through this fifth stage a couple of times until you are happy.

IN ITSELF THIS PROCESS IS VERY REWARDING AND YOU LEARN SO MUCH! Especially in the area of how you look at a painting. Art must have this ingredient - you must enjoy or have some definite emotional or spiritual connection with it.

Now your final artwork should be more “worthy” in your eyes. Can you now sell it or give it away or hang it on your own space! Something that you really like is more likely to find a person that also likes it!
So final question to you is how many paintings do you have that you think should be renewed like this?
Just maybe one thing that you take home as well – always take note of criticism...It is your school – make sure you learn from it, but in the end it is up to you to say this is the final product. You are the artist!

ON DRAWING AND DRAWING CHALLENGE

I have been drawing for the past 40 to 50 days and trying to keep it up with at least a drawing a day...A book that inspired much in this context is the book of the Americam painter William Morris. Here is my review of his book: On Painting and Drawing by William Morris Hunt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Great read for an artist - little comments made by one of his students over a period of time. Great tips on drawing and painting in oils.

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Soon to come posts of drawings and comments on mistakes and good practice...

PAINTING JERUSALEM

Jerusalem - the Old City painted from an old map, then I I superimposed an aerial view upon it and now it is just a representation and not a factually correct painting. I enjoyed painting it, but I struggled to get the right frame until I decided that a black surrounding would do it justice since it is now a aerial representation in the night. The Mosque is obviously totally out of scale...

What do you say about it?

I WAS THINKING OF 2019 AND REAFFIRMED MY ART GOALS

When you climb the steps of a ladder (called rungs), you go higher than you were before. Now I was thinking how can I climb the steps and how much of it have I already climbed this year 2019? In art specifically? And here is my thoughts: A. Generally to improve my technical skills in art i.e. use of art materials, methods of painting and drawing, composition- just generally to have an attitude of improvement. B. Obviously to improve means one have to study again and/or experiment and this I am constantly busy with; and especially here the old masters techniques and methods and colors etc. One can learn from those who went before you... C. To develop that something extra / more or narrative something special about my art. This probably is the most difficult. D. To look and experiment with Tempera, Iconography, Oil paining master's methods and techniques as well as alternative Framing methods. E. How to make art to give me a reasonable income. Selling art via galleries, private and the web...it remains challenging. A gallery art representation? Quality sells... Yes you've got it - I am on my way in this!!!

THE CRAFTSMAN'S HANDBOOK by Cennino Cennini

The Craftsman's Handbook by Cennino Cennini
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A great book of the Italian art craftsman - methods and colour pigments, prints etc. a technical book. It was written in the day or era of studying art with a master artist in an atelier. Advice for example given under "Fundamental provisions for anyone who enters this profession" is and I quote again "....begin by decking yourselves with this attire: Enthusiasm, Obedience, and Constancy. And begin to submit yourself to the direction of a master for instruction as early as you can; and do not leave the master until you have to." The book is very technical and some sections only to read as required (i.e. when you do that for example printing) and then under the pigments section - some pigments are not used or available or obsolete. So read and get what you can. There are very advice in this book and a lot of technical material. A rare art book.

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ART QUOTES THAT MOTIVATES ME

Yes it is true - all artists need motivation! The best place to find motivation is looking at what other artists did or wrote. I particularly find them motivating - here is a list of some of them:

1. Work on it until it cannot get any better.
2. Get good enough at anything and somebody will pay you to do it.
3. Your art goes as deep as your love goes.
4. Art is made to disturb. Science reassures. There is only one valuable thing in art: the thing you cannot explain.
5. It is a widely accepted notion among painters that it does not matter what one paints as long as it is well painted. This is the essence of academicism. There is no such thing as good painting about nothing.
6. There are two sorts of beauty; one is the result of instinct, the other of study. A combination of the two, with the resulting modifications, brings with it a very complicated richness, which the art critic ought to try to discover.
7. Art arises when the secret vision of the artist and the manifestation of nature agree to find new shapes.
8. I enjoy the creative process of moving from chaos to order but at the same time to have beauty and mystery in mind: that something special in art.
9. It is never about the image, but the story and feeling behind the painting.
10. Most men's brains lie fallow for the greater part of their lives.
11. I am under the direction of messengers from heaven.
12. Art is perseverance - you never arrive. Your destination is the journey so do not quit.
Yes and you are right, I will add to these quotes from time to time. If you find this motivational (and tough!) and want to comment or add a quote - just leave a comment to the blog.