Play

Play has a bad reputation. It is seen as a waste of time. It is not. Play is a vital and necessary part of any intelligent creature’s life. The higher the intelligence the more important play is.

Pumpkin in Coffee

For most intelligent creatures play is an essential part of learning. It is a way of exploring both the limits of our environment and ourselves.

Play is an essential part of art. We need to explore both our media (materials) and our own creativity. Play is how we do it. We need to understand just what the art material can and cannot do, and how to combine them to get the results we want. Most people call this experimentation. And it is. But it does not have to be dull.

Bags of Candy

Take the color chart.



Red



Work, right? Well yes, but that does not mean it cannot be fun. And should be. Doing both color charts and value charts should engage us. They should not be simple chores assigned by an evil task-master (art teacher). These charts should be how we come to understand and love our material.



Yes they are serious learning exercises, but more than that. We need to come to an understanding of just what is color, hue, tone. We need to play with the paints/materials to learn this.

Home Made Color Wheel

Creative Play

This week we did come creative play in the art classes of The Renaissance Art Gallery. Without warning or preparation, the classes were invited to simply play with media.

 

Using the December 2011 creative project of mixed media-line on about.com/paintings site Marion's Painting Blog, each person was to choose at least 2 mediums to use, one wet, one dry. Mixed Media Project

Among the wet medium to choose from was watercolor, acrylics and coffee. Mixing in some dark coffee added a lot to the experience.

Loading the table with papers, pens, paints, charcoal, etc. each student was able to pick and choose things, to simply play with media.

 

Interesting, none of my students did anything like what I expected.

The resulting pieces were extremely interesting.

One student took me at my word to explore the paper itself.

After using watercolor pencils to draw a tree, she then took textured pastel paper, tearing it to bits to cover the tree trunk with texture.

Unhappy with the over color, she used coffee on a cotton swap to add shading and character to the drawing.  Then used the cotton swap to add bushes and distant hills. Watercolor and ink added twigs to the branches as well as a few brown leaves, and grasses.

Another sketched out a classic nude, then used watercolor to suggest background, adding texture and shading to the figure with conte’.

Even crayons were used, as both color and a resist for watercolor washes.

He Never took a Lesson in his Life

He never took a lesson in his life. We are told this over and over by his (or her) proud relatives, co-worker or parents. This person who simply can draw anything with no effort at all (no effort they have seen anyways). At every show or opening or even when I simply mention I am an artist, out comes the relative who “never took a lesson in his life”. Now, there is a real artist! And that should show you!

Why are we so in love with the self-taught artist? And so suspicious of the art student/ art graduate? As if somehow the very fact that they studied art nullifies their talent? Some how, the person who studied art is a the dilettante? And not a serious artist? We do not expect even the most precious or precocious musical prodigy to be able to play the piano without lessons or some kind of guidance and lots and lots of practice, but for some reason, visual artists are not according the same respect and allowances.

We should just be able to draw, paint, sculpt, with nary a misstep. Each work should be the perfect culmination of artistic genius, and if it is not, well, we must be fakes.



And this is often they way it is taught. Middle school students are taught that they all ready know what they need to know to be artists by “instinct”. Heaven forbid that any art teacher should “inhibit” them with drawing lessons! Or instruct them in craftsmanship. More and more students come out of college with their fine art degrees, expressing themselves all over the place, but the quality of work is poor. The ideas are undeveloped and raw, and they are clueless. Most of their instruction is in the peer critique. So their ideas and beliefs far from being challenges are simply reinforced by people as inexperienced as they are. They come out of school shouting at the top of their lungs before they have anything to say.



Well, it ain’t so babe. Art is hard work! It takes years of painting, sculpting and drawing etc. to master any medium. Yes, art is about self-expression, but there is a place for manners too. So stop, and listen. Learn to develop those ideas before regurgitating all over that canvas.

Art and the Head

Or Something is up up There!

The thought processes behind creating and living with your art.

Art happens in the head, not the hands. Anyone with enough manual dexterity to sign their own name has enough muscle control to draw, if sufficiently motivated.

Painting can be even easier. The basic skills of handling a pencil or paint brush, learning about color and color families, composition, etc. can be taught, even to a certain extent, creativity can be taught, or rather techniques for unlocking your own creativity can be discovered. These “keys” to creativity can and will be different for everyone.

But the main one is the same for all. The more you create, the more experience you get with the basic act of creating, the more in tune you will be with your own, unique creative process. And that happens inside your own head, not on a piece of paper or canvas.


Skill, don’t knock it.


Skill is required to successfully create any work of art. It just doesn’t “just happen”. Yes, there is serendipity in art. What other artists have called, “happy accidents” but you are more likely to have these happy accidents if you have mastered basic skills in whatever medium you have chosen.

This leads to:

Practice makes perfect in art as in everything else. The more you paint, draw, crave, mold, staple and manipulate any media, the more mastery you will have over it, and the more inventive you can get with it.

Guilt by Association

Another strange thing about creativity, the more you are around creative people, the more creative you become. This is the reality behind things like artist’s colonies. Creative people have found that by associating with other creative people the more creative they become.

Such is the reality of many of our art movements. The impressionists had their own little impressionistic “club” same with the Fauvists. Picasso did not create in a vacuum, he surrounded himself with an invisible and sometimes visible support to his creativity.


Which brings up to the art league, art association, artists group, etc. Many of us feel the need to join such groups. They can be a large influence on us or a drag, depending on how good they are at inspiring creativity. Some are great, other can drag you down. So you have to investigate and decide just how stimulating they will be to you, the artist.

Find a Mentor

Ask yourself how will this group help you further your own artist ambitions? Do they encourage the work? Supply you with information or access to learning experiences? Do they sponsor the kind of shows that accept creativity or do they simply sponsor the same clickish work?

Select carefully when it comes to learning experiences. Many “classes” are more social clubs. You do a selected, pre-thought out complete painting in an afternoon. These are fine for what they are, but they will not stimulate your own creative direction. Find a mentor.