Donna, I second what Arty says.
I am sorry though, it must have stung. We expect some support from our friends. And someone who gives a good critique offers up good points as well. Often people start and stop at just the criticism. There’s nothing constructive about it.
Abstract is the most misunderstood of all art styles. There’s hordes people who don’t understand it, let alone appreciate it. Took me years to really come to love it even after all the art education and art appreciation classes. It is not for everyone and there is a lot of subpar work to wade through (I don’t love it all). People will gravitate to what they like.
I’ve always done a lot of realism and been complimented on it. Lately my abstract is getting all the feedback and wonder. The interest. Even offers to purchase! The big reactions. Where did that come from? But I have family and friends and people who just look at it and smile and try to be polite. Or look at it perplexed. I know it’s not for them. My daughter doesn’t understand any of it at 23. Especially the very “boring” ethereal paintings. Some of my favourites. She asked me, “What’s even the point of this?” I was not at all offended. I actually laughed and I told her what I thought about it, but I told her she doesn’t have to like it or understand it. For me especially at that time, it was the most soothing piece - like floating underwater in the jewel like water. It suited me. My husband like “busy” type abstracts of mine. He’s still a little upset that I painted over his favourite because I wanted to go in a different direction. Lol.
And whenever anyone sees a selection of all my work, I stand back quietly and it is amazing how everyone picks out a different favorite. I’ve had people point out my weakest pieces as their favourites. I often found my strongest pieces, which I thought would be most popular, were nodded at and passed over and they went for something else. It was always a bit of a surprise. All different individual tastes. But when it comes to my abstracts, I expect a certain amount of people will just not get it. They’ll go straight for the realism. I just expect it. Also I am ready for comments that anyone can throw paint at canvas. That’s the joke. So the reactions to my realism and my abstract are always a surprise.
I think you have to ready for all kinds of reactions. And the problem is when you ask for honesty, some friends or some family will be very honest in their critiques. Which could be a little bit jarring. But it’s only their opinion. Everyone will always have an opinion, educated or not. And Arty is right that some artists are jealous or they don’t understand abstract art either. They can say what they want but if they say it was easy- an act of throwing it together, I’ll say fine. Let’s just see how you do it then. I can be direct and honest back. And honestly, if they haven’t tried creating them, they don’t know. They probably wouldn’t know the first thing to do.
I know it hurts, I keep a sense of humour about it. After all, I have definitely walked in and seen art that I just thought was awful. Or I just didn’t understand and I’ve grown so much since then. There still is a lot of awful art. Sloppy. But I do remember my art appreciation course when the teacher was trying to open our minds to different kinds of art. The rule was when we went to art museums/ galleries, not to declare you like a painting or not. We were told to keep “like” out of it. Instead, try to see where the artist was going with his work and did he achieve it? And how did he do that with the tools he had. And to realize there’s more than one way to approach a subject. So for example, on the face of it, a very ugly abstract could be perfectly conveying an ugly subject/state of mind etc. And that would be successful. Sometimes in music, you have a perfect sync between what the lyrics are saying, and the sound of the piece. It doesn’t always have to be the classical beautiful sound. A beautiful melody. It could be jarring, shocking, heavy. When an artist gets it perfectly right, that’s when it’s Art. It went beyond the norm. And you will know it because you will just be struck by a piece. You won’t even have to read what it was supposed to be about. You will know instantly.
It is actually difficult to create such a piece.
Most of the general population have never had an art appreciation course or painted anything. How many artists have never taken a course either! So it’s not for your friend. Fine. Here are some pretty flowers or landscape she might like. You know? There are many artists that come to the forum that will never step into the contemporary or abstract art section and be perfectly happy. They don’t understand it or they don’t like it, and they’re not even open to expanding their minds. They are free to do that. They are not your audience. There are others who are really not very interested in portraits or landscapes or flowers, etc. Those people are your audience !
Kudos to you for doing more then just landscapes and flowers! And you did it very well.
Paintboss ( The Grand Puba of this thread) has spoken!
