A Happy Day at the Libertarian Convention
I finished this painting yesterday. I love to paint, but I don’t do it all that often. Every once in a while, the spirit moves me, and I do it, even though there is no particular reason. I haven’t been asked to paint this, and while it kind of looks like what I wanted it to be, it also leaves a lot to be desired. Like all my paintings, it is too messy and too unfinished looking.
But despite this fact, I feel as if I might be making progress. Because the last time I painted a group of people, back in 1995, here is how it looked. (The image is distorted below to fit the page. Click on it to see it in correct proportions.)
A Narrative Painting from the Past
The painting above was more ambitious and covered a much bigger canvas. It takes up almost an entire wall in my mother’s house. But if you look at my self-portrait, peeking out from behind the main figure, and compare it to my new self-portrait, second from the left on the much smaller canvas, I think you can see that the new me is somehow more realistic, even though it is messier.
My friend Julia told me she thought my painting was very expressive. It took me some time to realize this was a term of art and not just a general description. At first I wondered what she meant. Was it that the faces have such obvious expressions on them? Or was it just that I like to tell a story, preferring narrative to lyrical paintings? It took a while for it to sink in that she was telling me something important. So I finally looked up expressive painting, and here is what I found:
http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/ss/expressive.htm
According to the article I cite above, expressive painting is a style that does not try to hide the brush strokes and the paint.
Some people regard an expressive or painterly style to be less finished, or even unfinished. But it’s not a style of painting where the end result is intended to look smooth and glossy like a photograph. It’s a style which celebrates and shows off the materials made to create it: paint and a brush. The result is something only a painter could produce.
I did not know that my style of painting was expressive. I have my friend Julia to thank for that. I think as I mature, I am less interested in hiding how I achieve the result, but I am more and more interested in getting into the heart of the representation. What makes this person look like that? I ask myself. And then I try to achieve the look with as little time spent as possible. Because, after all, I am not a painter by trade, and I am doing this in my spare time from many other pursuits, so it has to be a quick return on investment.
Some people say that practice makes perfect. I am not sure that it does. In my case, I never paint just for practice. I only ever paint when I have something to say that can be said with an image, but not with words.
Do you feel happy when you look at that painting? I do. It was a happy moment, surrounded by people who love liberty and who don’t think that fighting for it is tilting at windmills.
I actually really like the expressive style of painting, and I do a bit of it myself with brush strokes. I like your painting style, and I think you should embrace it. For years I always felt like I had to prove myself with art, but was always preplexed by what some considered great art, when some pieces did not speak to me at all. My instructor for an introductory art history class said we should go with our instinct, and not try to justify it so much. She worked at the Getty and thought with more training she would come to appreciate certain art pieces more, but realized over time she liked certain things and not others. I like that your art tells a story, and it is probably best to only paint when you are inspired to. I know I want to create more art, and often argue with myself. My sister thinks I am very hard on myself, but lately I am just having a difficult time with the inspiration to create. I do want to draw and paint, and I enjoy it, but nothing is really firing me up to do so. I think art or anything else is really better when it calls to you. I know one day I will submit something to an art gallery, and I do not think one group of people get to dictate what art is good and bad.
Yes, I think it is best to work on any creative project when you feel called to do so, and then to set it aside when you are just not in the mood. This is true for writing, too. We can’t force creativity. It has to flow.
I love your paintings, and I have seen them evolve, too. It is okay to take time off to recharge. I myself spent the past few years writing and publishing one novel after another, and now I am taking a sabbatical from that. I think the time when we are not being overtly creative with the art can be well spent on marketing. That calls for a completely different kind of inspiration!