"the other king of everything and the princess bird" 6 x 6 in.
This is a painting that I started and finished in the daily painting class I taught at Squam last week. Creating a painting during class is a relatively new addition to my teaching repertoire. This is because I want my classes, first and foremost, to be all about the students and how I can support and inspire their creative time. But then I realized by working on a painting in class, I can actually show everyone first hand the techniques I use to create the way I do. In my last e-course I also demonstrated how I start my paintings via video and everyone seemed to really enjoy it.
The truth is I've never really thought of myself as a 'technique type' of artist, which is another reason I typically haven't done demonstrations in my prior classes. This is probably also because I'm mostly self-taught. My techniques were discovered by experimenting until I stumbled upon something I liked the effect of and decided to incorporate it into my art. My work is so simplistic in nature, that my painting style is all pretty straightforward. But once I start explaining how I create each piece, I realize that I do indeed have techniques ~ we ALL do. Imagine that?!
Which brings me to the inspiration behind the title of this post. While teaching this time, I referred to myself as a 'lazy artist'. It's true. Now don't get me wrong, as you know I work pretty hard over here at Creative Thursday headquarters and lazy is not a word I would ever use to describe my entrepreneurial self. I'm a confident artist, who takes my work seriously. It completely surprised me when referred to myself as lazy, but then I remember that I also tend to favor self-deprecating ;) But what I also realized, while demonstrating my techniques is that a lot of them are born out of ease. Lazy is probably a bit harsh, ease is probably better ~ but wait an 'easy artist'? yeah, that's not right either.
I'm an artist that has developed and favors a style of simplicity and ease. There that sounds better.
This is in large part due to my practice of daily painting. When you create a painting in a day, you just can't labor over it forever. What I didn't realize when I started daily painting is that I had just accidentally fallen into my favorite type of creating ~ fast and prolific.
When I first realized I had an affinity for painting, as a teenager, I started just like many of us; I copied what I saw in front of me, almost photographically, super realistic. While I still paint like this sometimes, I've chosen to let go of it for now in favor of the style I presently work in. Now let me also note here, that the style I presently work in has been developed out of years of practice, creating and designing. It's funny how sometimes the more experience we have, the more we return back to our simpler beginnings.
I love the style I presently work in. In it's purest form it is a true representation of exactly where I am at today. I crave honesty, genuineness, simplicity, ease, kindness, support {giving and receiving}, peace, contentment, and humor {I love a good a laugh}. And it probably goes without saying, but I also love color. When I look at my work, I see all of these traits and sentiments coming through in my characters. And to think that at one time I wasn't even sure that I could paint a character, especially one from my own imagination. Also, true.
The reason I was calling myself 'lazy' is obviously, not really because I think I'm lazy, but because I realized that I've come up with techniques that honor my nature and support my quest for fast and prolific. For me to labor over a piece with too much detail, while I can do it, I find the process agitating and not fun. Now I've had conversations with other artist friends of mine who absolutely love the complete opposite, the more detail, even tiny detail, the better.
More than likely I've mentioned this {many times} before, but it's worth repeating. A big secret to living this life as an artist is to learn how to tune into your truest nature and create from there. It's not about following what you think makes great art, or is the most salable, or following what your art teacher, or creative employer tells you to do, or working with techniques that are the most difficult, or including the latest trends in subject matter and color in your creations, which it might very well include all of these traits but first it's about:
Following your own creative nature.
Because when you tap into that, that is when I think you will truly make great art and you'll find the most fulfillment in creating. And as a working artist, I believe that once you've discovered your voice, this is when you will also have the best shot at making a living with your art. Making salable art, from your truest expression is a whole other discussion, so I'll leave it there for now. {On a side note ~ what I love most about this painting, is that several of the techniques I demonstrated in class, made it into the final version. I had originally planned to cover them up later with paint, but as it turns out the spontaneity, that became a looseness in the style of this piece really inspired me. One of those 'happy accidents' is where the princess bird's wings are blue on one side and grey on the other. I was showing shading techniques and now it looks like she has fur coat on ;) I also used this painting to demonstrate some brand new techniques that I literally discovered during the teaching of this class. Have I mentioned how much I love teaching?}
happy weekend and happy art making!
{original is sold}
