What do you strive/try for in your art?

[Artyczar]

What are some of your goals while working in your art? Lately (or always), I'm trying to loosen up. I don't know why I can't sometimes, and maybe I don't know how, but I'm always working toward that goal. Maybe I need to speed up...not sure how to open myself.

I also try to work on oil technique, like working wet on wet is a new thing for me.

What about you?

 

[snoball]

Enjoyment, bliss. I lose myself and all conception of time while I am painting. Usually when I am drawing or doing scratchboard or pointillism, that is my meditation time. I suppose that sounds silly but it is a fact.

 

[Iain]

I don't know about myself. To loosen up (everyone is good at suggestions), maybe you could have an "amateur hour," have a day in the week where you do something outside of your regular work, treat it as - I don't know - a day for serious messing around without the restraints/strictures of craft. Just an idea. Bellissimo sno!

 

[Iain]

Otherwise, raid the drink's cabinet!!!

Speaking of drink. Excuse me...

 

[Dave Woody]

I mostly paint for individuals. I love painting moments they and I share ... and also, often,
pictures I have painted with no one in mind find Owners who they belong to hang with.

 

[Desforges]

I paint them out of my cluttered head

 

[Maybenartist]

A mute protest to leave behind something against the futility of what, with certainty, will be the end.

 

[Desforges]

You are a writer! Maybe?

 

[Hermes2020]

I am uncomfortable to speak of "my art" — in my case it would be rather pretentious, given my status as an amateur. However, my goals are invariably to show others textures, shapes, and colour combinations that give me a certain tingling feeling in the stomach. Can one call it a visual orgasm? I am so overwhelmed by the beauty of certain things and accidental combinations, that I am driven to show them to others, since I am unable to express the feelings in words.

 

[Artyczar]

You are a writer! Maybe?

I sure hope you weren't speaking about me.

 

[Artyczar]

I guess I didn't ask the question correctly. What I want to know is, what particular thing are you working on to better lately, not what your aim is for your art in general. But it's great how people have interpreted the question to start.

 

[snoball]

I guess I'm just working to get back in my groove. Been too lazy lately. I'm going to start another portrait and I hope it can come up to past standards.

 

[Desforges]

I sure hope you weren't speaking about me.

I am really sorry if what I wrote was misinterpreted. I simply meant that Maybeanartist’s words were so well written that they appeared to come from a writer . That was my intention , as a compliment.
And Arty, you know how I feel about you as a writer. I have so much admiration.
That is so sad that my comment caused so much confusion.

 

[Artyczar]

Glad that got cleared up. I was worried you didn't think of me as an artist. Sorry, I got scared that maybe I wasn't!

 

[Artyczar]

I have been wanting to get back into the "groove" again too. I think I'm there again. It feels like it anyway. The last few days anyway. Ha.

 

[OliveOyl]

The reason WHY I paint is just to keep boredom away.

But the WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING part of painting is just me wanting to make some sort of comment about “the world” (society, culture, politics.) Sorry if that sounds too high-falutin, but my work has ALWAYS been about power and gender and sex and relationships and people - in some way - and why we’re such aholes and how we’re lovely, too. I suppose I’m digging at...something here. Why I’ve worked so insistently at trying to figure humans out (on one hand), while simultaneously wishing to get as far away from them as possible (on the other)...is puzzling.

Maybe, like every other artistic person, I’m just trying to leave behind a mark. If that’s true, I guess my mark is...

We Are Here.
Here We Were!
(And...so what?)

 

[Bongo]

I guess I didn't ask the question correctly. What I want to know is, what particular thing are you working on to better lately, not what your aim is for your art in general. ..

Composition. We all know the "rules" of composition. I'm not trying to break them or follow them. Just come up with the most impactful composition I can. I think we tend to get lazy about composition because we know the "rules" and once we settle on a subject we're anxious to get on with the painting. But composition is arguably the most important part - and the most difficult to impossible thing to correct once you start.

Expressions. When I do portraits I strive for likeness or believability. Often the "paint" not me determines the expression. The expression is what happens while I'm working on flesh tones, values, etc. So often when I get a good portrait, but it doesn't convey the expression I intended I change my "intention" instead of changing the painting for fear I'll mess it up in the process. I want more than a straight, neutral face rendering and I want to decide what it is and not leave it up to chance. And when I say expression - I don't mean - those are characters of expressions, exaggerations. Ideally, the face would seem -just about to smile, just about to cry, just about to look away, - etc. And I'm okay if the viewer doesn't get it "right" what I want most is a sense of communication or interaction- that the sitter in the portrait is aware of you, or speaking to you.

 

[Maybenartist]

You are a writer! Maybe?

My late wife used to tell me I should write, but she used to tell me I should do lots of things!
I've written some poetry now and again if that counts.

 

[Maybenartist]

I would think the only thing needed to be a writer, is a love of words and something to say. Like the only thing needed to be an artist, is the materials and something to say.

 

[Artyczar]

Bongo and Olive, I hear you guys loud and clear! Thank you for sharing those things. Those are important feelings and intentions in art (I think!).

I think I'm most vulnerable in my art and I can't help but express that in the process. I try not to open my mouth too much after I set sail to the finished piece because I want my viewers to have their own experience of the thing and not tell them what to feel because I don't feel like the work belongs to me anymore once I'm done. My process is so intense, I don't expect the viewer to know what I've been through.

I am always looking to open myself even more--more and more--and share this experience with people. It's my way of connecting, no matter what a person feels (or doesn't feel) with my work. I don't really know how else to have true relationships with people other than this. This is how I reach people and show myself most, and in that there is an intimacy I guess.

So, I am always striving to dive into myself more and release all my fears about painting, rules, other people's ideas of what art should be, and be my own council. I peel away at this constantly and get results, but I always want MORE.