Put Feelings in Your Painting!

After the Storm
Acrylic on Canvas Panel
 16 x 20 in/40.6 x 50.8 cm
Copyright Byrne Smith 2008

I have blogged about feelings (Put Feelings Into Your Artwork and Let the Emotion Flow!) before.

But I thought it was time to revisit this important, but often missing, ingredient of many paintings.

Feelings, as the old standard song goes, nothing more than feelings. It sounds so simple. Just go to your art supplies and pull out that bottle of feelings, right?

Not that simple. First of all, what am I talking about--feelings? When I say feelings, I mean that hard-to-capture and define "thing" that draws your viewer in.

But it's more than just grabbing the viewer.

It's the subject matter and the way it's positioned on the canvas. It's the way the values and colors capture the mood. It's what you, the artist, are trying to express.

When I paint a picture, I want it to have feelings that overtake the viewer and compel him or her to not just look, but see, what I'm trying to show with paintstrokes. I want the impression and feeling to be worming its way into the heart or brain or both.

Finally, I want the viewers to be moved or changed in some way so they will remember my painting and who painted it.