Fine Art Of Style

Oil painting at its most basic level is simply rendering a picture of some sort in colored oil.  The question that comes to mind is why do it?  And of course there are as many answers as there are artists.  However, there are some answers that most artists can identify with, such as “I just enjoy the experience” or “I hope to sell paintings”.  If you focus only on the commercial end of oil painting, there is a tendency to jump on the bandwagon of technique and engage a production line of very pretty but very dead art.  The net abounds with examples of dead art: illustrations  of artifacts that are pretty to look at but tell little about the soul of the artist.  There is a form of dead art that has the appearance of painting from the heart until you come to recognize that the artist spent most of his or her time learning technique and rarely traveled the lone road of finding individual style.  Style develops as a product of finding your own techniques to solve painting problems.  If all you do is copy technique from other artists then what you wind up with is a carbon copy of the other artist, thereby reducing the chances of finding your own style.  Remember, there are no rules in art.

Consider for a moment why people buy oil paintings.  Mostly it is for finding an accent to decorate a room.  However, some paintings are so damn captivating and haunting that the painting becomes not an accent but rather a precious possession.  Now just how many paintings of artifacts (dolls sitting on a shelf, etc.) can you find that transcend from “room accent thing” to “captivating” and haunting” ?  What can be captivating in dead art is the technique achievement of the artist,  but the painting itself remains “dead”.

Painting from the heart starts by first looking within yourself for subject matter.  Instead of thinking in terms of a particular thing to paint, think in terms of a “theme” or story such as a personal life experience. As an example, the theme that resulted in painting of  “Reality” was my personal experience with one particular canyon in New Mexico.  I didn’t just paint a picture of the canyon I visited nearly every day, but rather what I saw in my mind when I thought of that canyon.

Reality

Painting from the heart places the artist in the painting and the result is a painting that conveys the feelings of the artist.  If your intention is to develop a business from the sale of art, there is no doubt that dead art will have the larger sales volume.  And for many artists, it is the sale of dead art which supports their time in painting from the heart.  Too often the mistake of the beginner is to study technique, engage a production line of dead art and lose their soul in the process.  Just paint from the heart and technique will develop as you search for answers in producing a haunting masterpiece.

Painting from the heart does not eliminate the need for planning.  The general idea should be first sketched on paper.  However, the key element of this is “general” which means lines and composition, and not all the intricate shading that might occur.  What you need to understand is that drawing and painting are two very different forms of art.  And what might look good in a pencil sketch can be a disaster when attempted in oil.  Be prepared to change ideas as you paint: and never hesitate to wipe it off the board.  It is the painting you did not do, because you could not let go of the original idea, that is most likely the “master piece”.

Success is dangerous. One begins to copy oneself, and to copy oneself is more dangerous than to copy others. It leads to sterility (Pablo Picasso).