Posts Tagged ‘landscape painters’
Creativity of the Landscape Painter
A study by Teresa Amabile and colleagues at the Harvard Business School tells an interesting story about creativity. The researchers asked a number of artists to select 20 of their works of which 10 were commissions and 10 were from their regular production. A panel of curators and art experts, knowing nothing of the nature of the research, were then asked to rate each work on creativity and technical skill. While skill ratings turned out to be pretty well the same, the commissioned works consistently rated lower on creativity.
In the studio or on the road, many landscape painters find they are the most creative when they’re simply on the lookout for joy. Experts are now seeing intrinsic reward, when there is no payoff except for the joy, as the silver bullet of motivation and a principal key to evolved work.
Why the Landscape Painter Should Teach a Workshop – Part-2
Money is not the only reason landscape painters should teach a workshop – and may not even be the primary incentive. Artist Li Gardiner says that her workshops stimulate her own creative juices, help to relieve artists’ block and give her ideas and inspiration for future work. Within the arts community, an overall increase of exposure results from teaching workshops. Artists add students’ names to their mailing lists for future workshops. Students return and often bring friends who are interested in painting.
Artists who teach other artists in their workshop report that they are great avenues for networking. Artists find that by maintaining contact with each other, they are more effective at creating and marketing their own art than those who go it alone. In addition, teaching lends an aura of authority to artists. Being a voice of experience can lead to opportunities in other areas, such as writing articles or books.
Love and Anger of the Landscape Painter
Love and anger are two of the motivators for making art. Due to economic conditions, disabilities, peer pressure, teachers or others, a few landscape painters are able to fight the uphill battle to at least channel their anger and daily they are driven to “show the world”.
“Other creatures take a more gentle and loving approach. The finding of love within our work unlocks the studio and prompts the action of hand and mind. The extraordinary prevails and even ordinary and well-trodden subject matter can be freshly explored and rejuvenated. Between the turning on and turning off of the lights there’s a span of privilege. Held steady by the gentle hand of love, we begin, we keep going, and we sign off. There may not be a higher calling,” said Robert Genn in his January 6, 2012 newsletter. “Love does not just sit there, like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new.” (Ursula K. LeGuin)
New Year’s Resolutions for the Landscape Painter
Here we are almost a week into the New Year. Have all you landscape painters made your New Year’s resolutions? What do you want to achieve this year? Usually we make a few resolutions, then life gets in the way, and in a few weeks we have forgotten or neglected our heartfelt desires.
If you decide that this will be “your year”, you will need to: 1) Write down your goals. This gives you the focus to follow through. Make them realistic, but with leeway. Put this list where you can see it every day. 2) Make a plan. Develop a roadmap to achieve the goals and desires you want for this year. 3) Set a deadline. When you have a deadline for achieving a goal, you are more likely to follow through and actually make it happen. Highlight the deadline date for each idea and look at it every day. Challenge yourself to finish each idea by the selected deadline. 4) The “how” comes once you have decided to follow your dreams. So, decide what you want for the year, make a plan, set a deadline for each idea and know that the “how” will take care of itself.
The Landscape Painter’s Vision
Happy New Year, everyone! Do you ever wander back to that time when you first started thinking about making art? Do you ever think of the vision that you first had – how your art would be made, its themes, its looks? How simple it was then. For some of us it was just a matter of learning the skills and enacting our vision.
Then with a little seasoning under our belts, we modified, changed, expanded, contracted. We grew – or perhaps regressed. We landscape painters are constantly faced with forks in our roads – and the realization that some of the paths we take are a genuine pressing ahead with our dreams, and others a caving into demands and the easy backslide into mediocrity. It’s sometimes possible to confuse creativity with compromise.
Perhaps it’s a matter of figuring out what is true. Take a break regularly and reassess where you are going, review whether you are doing what you truly like and want to do. What are you doing right? What is uniquely yours? Which subjects and stylistic elements give you satisfaction?
Go back to your dreams. Feel the evolution since the beginning as a natural unfolding. Think of misguided moves only as potholes and part of the process. Breathe deeply, be thankful and be true to your true self.
The Artist’s Statement
Today as I was poking around trying to find a topic about which I could write that would interest landscape painters and other interested folk, I came upon someone who wrote articles on artists statements and resumes. The best source I found was http://www.squidoo.com/artist-statement#module15692582 .
This article lists books and articles by a variety of people listing why and when an artist would need a statement and how it should be written. So if you are having problems writing your artist statement, resume or CV, I hope this will be of help.
Robert Genn, Canadian Artist
Robert Genn is one of Canada’s must accomplished landscape painters. He paints in acrylics and writes a twice weekly letter which is free, and to which I subscribe.
You, too , can subscribe by going to www.robertgenn.com and click on “Painter’s Keys” at the bottom of the page. Your letter will arrive every Tuesday and Friday mornings in your inbox.
Many artists comment about his letters and include their own paintings. Sometimes I find it as interesting to read the comments as to read the letters.
The Edison and Ford Estates
My friend and I decided to do some landscape painting at the Edison and Ford Estates today. Our friends had said they had seen several landscape painters on the Estates and that painters were encouraged to come.
After we parked, I went to pay any fees and ask permission to paint. After talking with 2 volunteers and another who seemed to be a paid employee, I waited for the Event Coordinator who asked me if I would try to sell my painting. I said I did have a web site and hoped to do so. I then had to sign a couple of papers which, in her words, said that if I became a Van Gogh, I would owe the Estates something. I replied that I would be glad to share with the Estates, but not to hold her breath! At least, I didn’t have to pay!
Edison had imported several varieties of Ficus and Banyan trees as well as several other types of trees, trying to find a method of producing rubber, and they had been planted in a grove next to one of the parking areas. My friend painted a giant Ficus tree and I painted a leafless Bo tree on such a gorgeous day!.