darwing and art
cher...@webtv.net
creation of art has been very interesting. As a child I loved drawing
and coloring and at the age of seven painting at school. I remember
going in when I first arrived in the morning and painting at the easle
with tempera paints. I also remember other students coming in and just
watching as I painted. Then we moved to a rural school that had no art
instruction or supplies. I drew on my own but was also told by my parent
not to waste paper. There were few pictures in our home and no memtion
of art that I ever remember. I drew until I was about ten years old then
only occasionally as I began piano lessons. I learned the piano mostly
to please my mother as I had no real burning desire to play. I did
become fairly accomplished which I guess proves that even without a
passion for something you can become skilled. It was what was available,
my mother could teach me to play the piano, she could not teach me to
draw or paint.
I went to college right out of high school. You would not think
that a person 18 years old , an honor student, and the pianist for the
brand new choral class as well as chuch organist could not be so
underexposed when it came to the choices available to me. I am not a
champion of the small rural school for obvious reasons. At any rate,
eventually as a grown woman I went to another college and decided to
pursue my childhood love, drawing and painting and clay.I suppose I
should have expected that I would not be taught basic skills since a
person should have some background already. Strangely enough, my first
semester I received two awards in drawing, first and honorable mention.
Both peices were representational , one being a little on the abstract
side unintentionally.
I dropped out again because of financial reasons. But went back a
few years later to another school. This time the instruction was what
was termed conceptual. I did learn many things, the elements of art,
arrangement of a composition, and probably most important about color.
Color was one of my strengths. Here's where a problem lies, however,
although I have a great sensitivity and intuition when it comes to color
I have never learned to paint representationally. I have always felt
inadaquate because of this. I always feel as though I am flying by the
seat of my pants when creating a drawing or painting. I suppose I am at
a cross roads now, whether to pursue representational drawing and
painting to assuage my feelings of inadaquacy even though I prefer
viewing abstract, emotional pieces of work, or just working from where I
am and not trying to go back and pick up what skills I have missed. I
was an art teacher for two years and although my students learned to
draw, I was at a loss to direct them in painting wildlife and landsapes
and portraits. I left teaching for this reason.
And so I have mixed feelings when I read about skills and
creativity. I think skills help us feel comfortable and confident and I
think those things are important to being able to create. But maybe not.
Even though I did receive some recognition for my work, the art history
professor bought one of my larger paintings for his office, I sold some
pots and won the portfolio competition one year. I almost never paint or
draw anymore and haven't for some time. True I have a demanding job and
a family but is that truly the reason. Probably not.
Chris Pelletier
with who can draw incredibly, but unless the designers at work tell him
what to draw, he's lost. He has all the skill he needs but little
creativity.
As far as your comments about passion, I believe it is the driving force
behind why someone pursues what they do. If you dont have it then why
pursue?
Peter Nelson
cher...@webtv.net wrote in message
<565-36A...@newsd-173.iap.bryant.webtv.net>...
>The discussion of drawing skills and whether they are necessary for the
creation of art has been very interesting.
I think it depends on the nature of the art. If you like
to sculpt figures from logs using a chainsaw you MAY not
need drawing skills but you certainly need skill of some
sort. All art requires skill to translate the artist's ideas
into or onto their medium.
. . . <deletia> . . .
. . . I'm not sure I understood your point in this story. You talk
a lot about education and also being self-taught. Are you
sure you're not confusing "skill" with "education"? Either
one can exist without the other.
> And so I have mixed feelings when I read about skills and
> creativity. I think skills help us feel comfortable and confident and I
> think those things are important to being able to create. But maybe not.
Why "maybe not"? The most creative ideas in the world
will remain locked up in the head of the artist if he doesn't
have the skill to express them in his medium. I'm a beginner
painter and I have ideas of paintings I would love to do
but currently I haven't got the skills to make those paintings.
Many of the exercises I do are specifically designed to
address problems in those paintings I want to do, but I think
it will be a year or more before I attempt to paint them.
In the meantime I've done studies in pencil and charcoal
for those paintings because I have more skill in those
areas.
---peter
Chris Pelletier
If you have ideas for paintings but arent confident enough in your
skill, do it any way. Experience is the BEST teacher. Even if you're
completely unsatisfied with the resulting piece,do it again and so
on.....
As far as if drawing is an essential skill, I believe it is. Through
drawing you work out problems, establish design, composition and even
concept. The dude who chainsaws logs most likely did drawings first. I
am a figurative sculptor and never begin a piece without investigating
it through drawing first. Of course you dont have to be able to draw
like Michelangelo, but look at his drawings then his paintings and
sculptures. You will see the thought process of a genius.....
later dude,
chris
Iam Lucky
WON'T YOU BE MY NET BUD???
Iam Lucky
of a thing or a basic idea of how you intend to approach the work.
Calli75682
posting from someone who could benefit so much from The Artists' way by Julia
Cameron. Suspect that have this list have lives that are equally demanding -
but, I know that I for one, manage to creat everyday. I suspect your feelings
are rooted in your childhood - no art in the house, changing to the piano to
please your parents. Try the book - think you might be surprised and spurred to
reach your potential.
Calli
peter nelson
<23060-36...@newsd-254.iap.bryant.webtv.net>...
Peter,
If you have ideas for paintings but arent confident enough in your
skill, do it any way. Experience is the BEST teacher. Even if you're
completely unsatisfied with the resulting piece,do it again and so
on.....
I do in bits and pieces. As a beginner I work on specific
problems I need to solve to execute the larger composition.
For instance, there's a painting I want to do based on an event
which happened to me recently that involved a trailer truck
jacknifing across a highway in a snowstorm at night. I
know I need to be able to paint the light from the headlights
of the cars on the highway which were blocked by the truck.
The truck is in silhouette and the lights shine into the sky
above it and through its windows and between the cab and
trailer and is diffused by the snow in the air. So that's
one problem I experiment with. Another is the way the
lights reflect off ice-glazed pavement so it looks like ice
and not water. There are several other problems in that
one painting.
---peter
Chris Pelletier
mean). It sounds like your primary concern with this piece is it's
realistic representation....cool. I had a painting professor in college
once who always told us to try to paint te air in between us and what we
see or visualize. A bit of an abstract concept I admit but it helped me
greatly in looking for defining factors that were otherwise hidden by
the subject itself......good luck.
later,
chris
Frederic Goudal
> Skill and creativity are two diffrent things. Theres this guy I work
> with who can draw incredibly, but unless the designers at work tell him
> what to draw, he's lost. He has all the skill he needs but little
> creativity.
What is to be said two, is that despite the opinion of some here,
there is no great painter who does not master his skill : because as
soon as you try to really exploit your imagination, you just have to
work and work again, and than you learn.
What is to be said is that the craft that you learn is not always the
classical drawing. Maybe it's conceptual skill, maybe it's colour
skill, maybe it's the painter personal way of drawing.
What is sad is that to many people would like the other to master the
same skill as they do. But as they are tall and small people, not everybody
must fit in the same model that is the 19th century academic painting.
f.g.
--
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e-mail gou...@enserb.u-bordeaux.fr
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peter nelson
Chris Pelletier wrote in message
>Wow man, thats pretty crazy stuff (the truck jackin' in front of you
> I mean). It sounds like your primary concern with this piece is
>it's realistic representation....cool.
What happened was that I was caught in the middle of a
multi-car accident but wasn't hit, myself. However I had
crashed cars in front of me and in back of me and was stopped
in the breakdown lane and it was 10 PM and snowing. The
road was sheer ice and I had studded snow tires - in my trunk!
I wanted to get out of my car and mount them but there
were still cars on the highway sliding this way and that
and I was afraid one would slide into my car while I had it
on the jack and was changing tires. Suddenly a tractor
-trailer was coming down the road and tried to avoid a
car which had crashed in the middle of the highway, jacknifed,
and slid SIDEWAYS towards me, stopping just short of the
wreck behind me, with its cab on the median strip and its
rear wheels in the breakdown lane, plugging the highway like
cork in a bottle. Now it was safe to change my tires, in
the dark and cold and snow.
So I want to be realistic but I also want to capture something
of the emotion of the scene, which I think I can do with the
light. Luckily I was driving home from an art class (this
all happened on Rt 128 in Massachusetts on my way home
from the DeCordova museum) so despite the terror of the
situation at the time I was primed to see the colors and
design and as I was crouching there at the side of the road
with frozen nuts (lug nuts, that is) I was thinking, boy this
would make a great painting!
> Yes, I had a painting professor in college once who always
> told us to try to paint te air in between us and what we
>see or visualize. A bit of an abstract concept I admit but it
> helped me greatly in looking for defining factors that were
>otherwise hidden by the subject itself......good luck.
Thanks!
--peter
JCMandel
drawing and painting to assuage my feelings of inadaquacy even though I prefer
viewing abstract, emotional pieces of work, or just working from where I am and
not trying to go back and pick up what skills I have missed.>>
Listen, you have a gift and you are sabotaging your own creativity. Paint,
draw and sculpt. Period. It's time you stopped listening to what other people
tell you to do (me included :D).