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All children love to draw or
paint. It matters little whether the result is an exact copy of reality
because at that moment reality is in the mind of the artist. As they
draw they are creators and each will stand back to admire what they have
accomplished. It is not their desire to become an artist, they
are already there!
There is that small child in
us all -- an artist inside that holds a perception of the world as
expressed by our feelings and thoughts. It differs from everyone else;
it is unique. But during the years of maturity we became self-conscience
about our abilities. Unfortunately, we might have been criticized;
decided that our talents lay somewhere else. Because it was met with
some form of disapproval, we stopped being so free with our expressions.
Picasso once said, "For all
of my life I have been learning to paint like a child". Did he succeed?
I think he did, because he never let go of his child-like images. He was
the master of innocence. Today his artworks are priceless, but at the
time they were created I'm sure some judged him harshly.
My first recollection of
drawing or painting was around the age of ten. By high school I spent my
meager earnings on oil paints and canvas. My passion was nature --
animals in particular and that was my subject material at that time.
Talent has two definitions -- a natural ability or a developed skill. My
parents couldn't send me to art school, so I depended on the former.
I am still painting in my
senior years without the benefit of schooling. There were times when I
thought I should have learned the basics of form, reflective light,
color-wheel importance, composition, etc. Still, not everyone can deal
with the pressure of grades or a structured format. I paint from my
heart, expressing what my mind dictates, and there are no schools that
teach that. I give myself new challenges, just to see if I can produce
this vision on canvas to my own satisfaction. You don't have to have a
certificate to do that.
Often we look at things
without really seeing them. After all, our eyes are merely lenses; they
have no knowledge, no memories and no experiences. To see well we
must open our minds as well as our eyes. Perhaps for that reason I like
to paint the less-than-perfect subject material.
A broken seashell has more
character than any perfect specimen. Models, just short of perfect
beauty leave a little 'yet to be desired'.
My choice for portraits
would be in the facial structure itself, eye or skin color and character
lines. It's been said that there are two times when a boy can be called
beautiful -- at puberty and when felled by the sword. I see in each of
these a child-like perception and I am driven, at times, to put these
images on canvas.
Henri Matisse put it
succinctly: "Creation begins with vision. The artist has to look at
everything as though seeing it for the first time, like a child".
© Esther Smith 2006
About
the Author: Smith has published numerous articles and writes a blog for
all artists:
http://the-self-taught-artist.com/blog.html
She also coaches new students on how to leave the time-for-money trap and set up
Leveraged Income for life.
http://thepermanentventure.com/dcc.htm If you can’t sing or ride a
bull, you better learn how to make your money work for more money.
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