Thoughts From Marsha

What decisions you make, do you believe are of benefit to your audience? The ones that are cool enough to get my attention?.......

This is going to be a "rambling" sort of blog post. It is a stream of thoughts I had, and decided I needed to write about it. But when putting it down in print, it seems somewhat disjointed.  The title is what I want to talk about, so I hope you get something from the rambling thoughts typed here.

Why are you painting what you are? At some point in the past years, my decisions have been about the objects I am painting, not "why" I'm painting the subject. And, I feel they have not been as successful in my eyes, nor in the public's eyes. This is important to me. Though I paint for myself, what I love or am intrigued by, I also paint for others to enjoy it.

I have painted for more than 45 years, many early ones were lots of trial and error and a lot of fun. I painted anything that struck my imagination. I think I learned loads and I had a lot of happy, accidentally good paintings! People liked what I painted. As the sales and awards came along, I started painting to fit galleries and shows, marketing, etc. I feel that I lost some of who I am, and it has become very hard to figure that out again. I am making progress now though.

When we give in to "producing" instead of "creating," I believe we lose a little bit of the artist's soul in our work. It becomes about copying something in the past that was successful in the retail or the show / exhibition arenas. Sure, many of us need to make some money to continue being able to create our art. It really is a very fine line in this respect.

As I am trying to find my way again, the benefit for my audience should be more feeling in the painting, maybe a story they can make up for themselves. At my galleries or in shows, I purposely don't start talking to a viewer until I know they are intrigued by something. I have always instinctively known to do this. I then ask them, "tell me what you are seeing or thinking." I don't want to tell them my "why" until I know the answers to those questions... and sometimes they never get to hear my why because it might keep them from enjoying the painting from their own perspective. We paint for ourselves, but also for the audience to enjoy. I believe in letting them enjoy the story they see.

I know many artists and teachers talk about "why" being of critical importance. I am talking about "why" paint the idea you have. Ask yourself the question! Know why! Write it down if possible. Then the successes may come more easily. Ask yourself why a certain stroke or color. Ask if there is something done that needs changing. Ask yourself what do you want people to look at first. Ask is there a story implied here. I know I am also talking a lot about why certain techniques, or why change something that does not seem or feel quite right. All of it is important! All the "why" questions that can be used will make for more success. Again, write them down. Check them off your list as you work on each of your why questions.

Many times we just know instinctively we want to paint something. Whatever you do, don't lose that thought during the painting process. Keep coming back to the reason for the painting. Why!