Art Stuff Newsletter
the art newsletter about YOU....
Hi everyone... first of all you might be wondering why I don't address my newsletters to you personally - your first name. Well, what happened two years ago was a total computer crash where all of the first names on my list were lost forever. Emails were saved however. I would love to personalize these emails but just can't do it...
First of all I want you to see what others said about "emerging artist" - click here to read the unedited comments (except for some spell checking).
Here's the start of a new topic: "using formulas to do paintings". As usual there are many ways to look at this and for every way there's for sure an opposing view. So let's get started and see where it takes us. I've broken in down this way: There is a View... an opposing View... and the Balance to accommodate both.
View: the artist MUST lead the viewers eye through a painting
Opposing View: "bleep the viewers eye!" I'm just going to do the damn painting and trust that the viewer is smart enough so that they don't have to be manipulated to go through a painting the way I want them to.
Finding the Balance: the experience of painting for years can lead to a knowledge base that becomes instinctual so that a painter can actually lead the viewers eye through a painting based on instinct and intuition - not conscious thought.
View: as objects recede into the distance they MUST become cooler and lighter in value.
Opposing View: some great artists throughout history have broken this rule in some of their greatest paintings. I first noticed this fact at a Sorolla show I saw in San Diego years ago.
Finding the Balance: while it often is wise to follow this rule, a new sense of excitement and vitality can be attained by NOT adhering to it.
I want to finish by saying what I believe: it sure can be a great help to learn the rules so that when you get stuck in a painting and don't know what to do to save it the rules can provide an answer that really helps. I acknowledge that, but also feel strongly that a painting based entirely on following the rules, by definition, cannot be a painting with too much 'soul'.
Now I turn the podium over to you. Send me examples of rules, their opposing views and a balancing statement. I'm asking abstract painters as well as representational painters.
Here's a great cartoon that all you artists must print out and put on your refrigerator doors, or wherever....Thanks to Texas Ruth once again.
As promised - a link to what I have planned in 2008 including Greece, Provence, San Miguel de Allende (Mexico) and of course the BIG Apple - NYC.
Phil