Time to Take My Art Up A Notch

A Rainy-Day Walk
Acrylic on Canvas
18 x 24 in/46 x 61 cm

Well, I finished my rainy-day acrylic, and so, it’s today’s image. I’m happy with it as much as any painter is happy with his or her work—which is to say, I wish it were my very best work.

I’m not sure I ever heard an artist say he or she was completely satisfied with his work. I think that’s the nature of artists and painters.

As a painter, if you were totally, 100 percent satisfied, then you may think you have done the best you will ever do. You may think your most recent painting is the best one. But what about your next painting, where will it fall on your scale of goodness? Are you getting better or worse?

Thinking about that can be depressing.

However, the great thing about being an artist is that you are in control of your work. You have all the cards to play. It’s up to you what to paint or create. It’s up to you how to apply the paint and what colors to dab on the canvas.

It’s up to you to sweat over the details or not. You decide how you want the piece to appear. You decide the viewpoint, the horizon line, and the focal point.

You are in control of the direction your art is taking. Only you. You can be ecstatic or inconsolable or any place in between.

Why am I off on this tangent-rant? Because I’m trying to decide how I feel about my work.

On the one hand, I learn something new every single day, either online from other artists or art websites, or from a book, or from my own painting experience that day.

On the other hand, I have a vision in my mind’s eye of how I would like my painting to appear. I have not been able to match my work to my vision yet.

So it must be time to take my art up a notch. I wonder how I will do that.

Until next blog…