Get What You Want

TO GET WHAT YOU WANT YOU HAVE TO CLEARLY DEFINE WHAT IT IS.

We are taught that to get what you want you need tohave a clear and concise picture of it in your mind. It also helps to be able to write a full description of it on paper. For an artist this is not always easy as the act of creation often means that we are not sure of what the goal is - or at least not in the conventional sense. Planning a strategy for a painting and taking appropriate action is hard to do.

A while ago I started off with an idea for a painting about spa herbs. I had sketchbook, paints, canvas etc all at hand, a lifetime of painting and drawing skills under my belt and an in-depth knowledge of plants. So far, so good. But how you turn these resources into a painting about certain feelings attached to a set of plants is a bit of an open ended question. After a certain amount of research on spas and sketchbook studies of relevant plants I made a start and got on quite well. Then ‘life’ got in the way and extremely cold weather put my studio out of action for a while. Painting ground to a halt.





AN ARTIST NEEDS TO MARRY STRUCTURE WITH INTUITION

Then it got warmer and I got on again but I didn’t like the way the painting was going. It wasn’t what I wanted. I decided to change its title to ‘Healing Herbs’ and the slight shift in feeling got me moving again. I had a strong structure going but I needed to get that sense of healing in the image. So I had to fire up my intuitions. When I get stuck like this I often listen to loud music whilst I work - the wireless is tuned to Radio 3 or Planet Rock depending on my mood. This greatly helps to shut out thoughts of balancing my cheque book or getting the washing done or whatever. An artist has to trust in those deep seated intuitions to bring some life into a canvas that is merely good structure. Once there is a marriage of intuition and structure the image takes on its unique life.

I altered the flow of the composition, added more plant material and modified the colour balance.Now I looked at the painting and thought “ah that’s better!” At last. It has taken months. People often ask me how long it has taken me to do a painting as if expecting me to say a certain number of hours. I have never understood this question. Do people imagine you just sit down each day and clock up a certain number of brushstrokes? Clearly there is an element of this but sometimes a painting day is not fruitfull. At the end of a day a painting can look lifeless, be lacking in meaning and the colour all wrong. Some days absolutely nothing works and it is better to walk away and leave it alone.

EVENTUALLY I GOT THERE. THE THING I WANTED WAS STARING DOWN AT ME AT LAST.

So here it is.....’Healing Herbs’. (rosemary, calendula and sage). Acrylic on deep box canvas, 90cm x 90cm. Price £525











You might want this painting to grace your home or office ...........
In order to get what YOU want you need to find the money, look at my website for contact details, come and view it, make the purchase, decide where you will hang it........... Good luck.