Blog Week: Does it work?
I was asked recently how I know if a painting is successful. It isn’t a simple question so I’m probably going to ramble as I try to answer it. I hope that is what a blog is for because that’s what I’m about to do.
When I started painting a successful painting was one I didn’t ruin. If I quit before I reached the point of no return then I had succeeded. Knowing when to stop is one of the hardest lessons to learn. Some of those FIRST lessons are the most important ones.
Then there were the paintings when everything had to be “right”. The perspective, shadows, local color - everything had to be an exact duplication of a preconceived idea. It was a good way to improve my technical skill and it was definitely easier to decide if a painting was “successful”. I outgrew that phase.
I began to understand why a painting hit or missed the mark when I studied the elements of design and trained myself to keep them in mind while I worked. I understood the strengths of the painting better instead of relying on hunches. Hunches are amazing, a sound design is hard to beat, and a combination is just plain fun.
What about my personal experience? If the painter is fulfilled and satisfied, is that enough? That would be wonderful but I don’t really think so. I do believe that satisfaction or joy needs to be the starting point - without it, I wouldn’t continue. Truthfully, my experience isn’t enough to make a painting successful. Nobody else cares. It needs to go beyond that.
At this point, a successful painting should begins with a satisfying experience but it goes beyond that. The piece must “hold together”. It has to be solid and I need to be engaged through the whole painting. If I was intrigued enough to maintain focus then it usually pays off. Autopilot is deadly - for me and for the end result.
I need to have resolved everything in the painting that I know how to resolve. That’s key too — I can’t hold myself responsible for resolving issues beyond my ability to recognize. If I’ve done everything I know to do and the painting feels “confident” then I’m satisfied. I can only judge a painting by my ability at a given point in time. I guess this falls in the category of comparing my work to others - something that we all do that can spur us to better work or defeat us. When evaluating my work, I find it to be the absolute wrong thing to do.
So there are a strange combination of factors that I’m considering when I ask myself if my painting is successful - some I’ve covered here and some I’m not consciously aware of yet. A question I’m still considering is whether how the painting is received has any bearing. I think it does — if it doesn’t communicate or stir interest then how effective can it be? Successful and effective go together, right? This isn’t the same as selling - paintings I consider successful often sell slowly. That’s another discussion!
There was a time when I wasn’t always sure if a painting was successful. I’d often put pieces out at a show and after it sold, I’d decide it was a good piece. In a sense, I was waiting for validation. Now, I feel quite sure about every piece. It’s a purely personal decision but I tend to make it before I let someone make it for me. Whether I’m open about my feelings when asked, is another matter. It depends on who is asking and why.
