Rekindling the spark.... - WetCanvas: Online Living for Artists

This topic has 29 replies, 15 voices, and was last updated 4 years, 12 months ago by Yorky Administrator Ormskirk.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 30 total)

1 2 →

Author

Posts
March 24, 2019 at 1:09 am #470976
Dave Owen
Default
It’s been a while since I was last on WetCanvas and have spent the last 2.8yrs
doing virtually nothing with my art.
To show how bad it’s got I have an image below of my painting area and I can tell you now that it’s had very little use in the last 2.8yrs.

Believe it or not that above area has seen only 5 small (16″x 12″) paintings done in those 2.8yrs. What a waste of space that is.

I was a full time artist and had sold many (1000+) paintings over the last 10 years or so prior to well virtually quitting. I was was mainly painting acrylics, but I also enjoyed watercolour painting. 3 examples of the type of paintings I did.

Why I quit is a complex mix of things, this included time pressure, lack of return on investment, children problems, health concerns etc etc… It got so bad at one point I instinctively knew that the moment I started painting the phone would go and someone would want me for something or other.

Now, fast forwarding to today most the above pressures have diminished and I now have the time to paint again on a hobby only basis (even if it’s only 1 a week) , BUT, I just cannot get/acquire the enthusiasm back that I once had. I keep going into my studio space and basically sit there not doing anything,

Even though I have produced those 5 paintings there was no enjoyment or sense of satisfaction in their creation. It was like just going through the motions.

I NEED HELP. I don’t want to make a living from my art, I don’t want adulation or praise, I just want to enjoy picking up a brush again and creating something that gave me enjoyment in the way it used to.

SO, I am looking for suggestions, help, or even a kick up the butt if it helps me get back what I have lost….

So, if anybody would like to make a suggestion or two (even if they are a little goofy) I am prepared to listen and act on anything that will allow me to pick up those brushes again and enjoy putting paint on canvas or paper.

Any help would be appreciated….

Dave Owen.

Nature is the painter,
we are simply the scribes who document it
for the people of today and the historians of tomorrow. Anon.
March 24, 2019 at 3:57 am #803377
Yorky Administrator Ormskirk
Default
Welcome back David. My advice – do more, they are nice paintings.

Nice work area.

Doug

We must leave our mark on this world
March 24, 2019 at 7:22 am #803398
Lauresa
Default
Hi Dave,

When I am stuck or discouraged I copy works of historic painters whose work inspires me. Sometimes I only copy part of the painting that I am really intrigued by. This takes the pressure off about what to paint and focuses on learning. You could also google drawing or painting prompts and find a list and start painting from it.

You will find your way. Now is your time.

Best regards,

Laura

C&C Always Welcome
https://laurahopkinsfineart.com/
http://Instagram.com/laurahopkinsfineart
March 24, 2019 at 8:42 am #803405
sykirobme
Default
I’ve gone through something very similar with another passion of mine: music. After playing in various bands, writing and recording music, etc. for over 20 years, I suddenly stopped (like you, for various personal and practical reasons). I quit my last band – probably the best originals group I’d ever had the privilege of playing in – and I haven’t really touched an instrument for almost five years. I kept all my equipment, and I regularly tune up my axes to keep them in shape, etc.

I know I’ll go back eventually. Music was/is too important to my life to completely abandon it. But I had to take a break.

But I never tried to force my way back in. When the time comes, I’ll know. The last few weeks, I’ve noticed that I’ve begun composing in my head again: chord progressions, melodies, riffs and motifs. I picked up my old Jag again the other day and it didn’t feel like something alien in my hands. I think I’m ready to make music again.

Maybe you just need to maintain that lovely space and wait for the moment you are ready. I’m not saying be passive about it – I never quit actively listening to music, feeling out beats, thinking about harmonies, etc. – but don’t try to bull your way back. Keep painting in your thoughts, read books and watch documentaries about it, visit museums…and it’ll come back.

Your work is stunningly good and it was obviously a huge part of your life. There’s no way it’s going to completely disappear, if you don’t want it to.
March 24, 2019 at 8:45 am #803378
Yorky Administrator Ormskirk
Default
I repainted some of my favourite paintings in gouache at ACEO size (3½x2½). It was fun.

Doug

We must leave our mark on this world
March 24, 2019 at 12:16 pm #803395
La_
Default
a new muse perhaps, assuming you’ve tired of the lovely romanticized scenes you’ve shown here on wc!

portraits? still life? abstracts even, if you really want to jump into a new box of exploration.

la

_____________________________________________
When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know Peace
March 24, 2019 at 3:59 pm #803399
marksmomagain
Default
These paintings are beautiful..:)
March 25, 2019 at 2:30 am #803388
Dave Owen
Default
Thanks to every who has contributed their thoughts on this matter, I have taken note of everything that has been said and will be making some plans to implement some of those ideas shortly.

Will definitely look into going to galleries and picking up books again. That was something I used to do and maybe that should be a couple of the first things I should do now.

Yorky.. my smallest paintings in the past were in my A5 size sketch books and I found them to be a struggle to work within their size limits… ACEO’s I would probably need a magnifying glass for.. but, I will have a go at them.

Laureas.. Never actively done a copy of another artist’s work, Over the years I may have picked up certain ways (styles) of painting that could have been influenced by the books I have read in the past about other artists but I did not consciously paint another artists works.

sykirobme.. you may well be right and that I might be forcing, pushing my return to art instead of allowing it to come back on it’s own accord. It has given me something to think about.

La… Abstracts, hmmm something to think about, Still Life, done a handful in the past so thats a possibility. Portraits LOL…. even Godzilla and Alien would look like kitty cats compared to my past explorations into just how bad a human face could be painted…….So sorry… thats probably a definite NO NO….

marksmomagain… Thank you.

_____________________

Just reading the few posts on here from the last 24 hours has got me thinking and it may well have identified another problem that I will need to tackle.

It’s my MINDSET, Over the years I have painted to make a living my mind has become set in it’s ways and has been totally focused towards painting to sell and so I have created works which were purely for the market places I sold at. This may well be my biggest stumbling block.

I have noticed that when I have thought about painting I seem to be saying to myself what are the costs involved, whats selling at the moment, what’s in trend etc., all of which are probably holding me back.

I need to get out of this frame of mind and back to a mindset which is uninhibited by marketplace selling and just focuses on painting what I feel like painting at the time,

This might take some time and effort.
so any suggestions about this would be welcome..

Dave Owen.

Nature is the painter,
we are simply the scribes who document it
for the people of today and the historians of tomorrow. Anon.
March 25, 2019 at 2:48 am #803379
Yorky Administrator Ormskirk
Default
You will be surprised how easy it is to create a small facsimile of your larger works Dave. Obviously you have to leave out a lot of detail.

These are roughly double size:

https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1402822&highlight=Gouache+minis

Doug

We must leave our mark on this world
March 25, 2019 at 3:21 pm #803403
provenceaquarelle
Default
I am not an artist per se. I am still learnng watercolour and improving my drawing skill, which need good improvement.

If you allow me to deliver my thoughts to you, I would say: get out of your studio. Grab a pencil, a small watercolour box, a small pad, and go around sketching. Sketching is not a “real” painting, it has no “how am going to sell it?” value, and if you need ti think about cost, it is near to none.
Maybe you need to do informal sketching, to get back to more important paintings…

Just my two cents, because I don’t like to see anyone suffer, without trying to help even if ony by giving a hint.

Maria - Made in Portugal
"Really I don't like human nature unless all candied over with art" - Virginia Woolf

https://womenwagepeace.org.il/en/
March 26, 2019 at 1:33 am #803387
Dave Owen
Default
Since my last post I have spent the time thinking about the way in which I was producing work and have come to the realization that my painting area (studio) may also be contributing to my reluctance to take up a brush again.
I will expand on that…
Over the years I had painted the studio was my means of earning a living and it has become adapted and geared to production line painting.
You enter through the door and the first thing you see is my preparation bench where canvases were preped and the initial drawings made. Towards the end of that bench is what you can see in the image at top of the page, the main painting area.
Just after that is the finishing off area where varnishing, hangers were fitted etc. Then theres the photography, storage and packing area before we get onto the last wall of the studio which is where all the electronics associated with processing those photos, creating sales and web pages for the paintings and all sales plus bookkeeping etc etc took place.
To show how effective the studio was I have created as many as ten 16″ x 12″ acrylic on canvas paintings from blank canvas to being on sale in less than the standard working work of 40 hours in this country (UK). (16″ x 12″ sized paintings on canvas would probably have accounted for 95%+ of all the paintings I did in the last two years prior to quitting. That’s about 500 paintings).
With the exception of a newer computer the studio is more or less in exactly the same way as it was when I left painting 2.8years ago.

SO, Yorky your ACEO (double sized) suggestion may be the way to go initially so as to break away from the 16″ x 12″ sized work that had been the main size I used to work in. It would help me loosen up and concentrate only on the essential aspects of the scene.
AND, provenceaquarelle your idea of getting a sketching set put together and get out the studio may well be what I need to do to break my production line mindset.

Going to have a dig in the non essential seldom used storage boxes I have lurking under the benches.. think there’s a watercolour box set and some old sketch books in one of them……

Thank you both for your suggestions a combination of both of them is probably the way to go for now, ACEO and double ACEO sized paintings done in a sketch book on location. It’s got possibilities…

Should anyone else have any suggestions please feel free to jot them down on here. I am open to any suggestions that will help me rekindle the spark I once had.

Thanks to all

Dave Owen.

Nature is the painter,
we are simply the scribes who document it
for the people of today and the historians of tomorrow. Anon.
March 26, 2019 at 1:56 am #803400
DavePete
Default
Dave…. Your art is very well done.

I suggest you paint something totally unlike anything you have done before. Experiment in the subjects and perhaps the materials. Paint something that makes you smile. Perhaps something silly. You certainly have good artistic skills.
March 26, 2019 at 4:32 am #803386
Dave Owen
Default
DavePete…
I have done various styles over the years and some of them were quirky and experimental. Even took to painting in a single colour to see how far I could push it. Take a look at the two paintings from many moons ago to see what I mean

I am open to experimentation and quite liked doing it. it’s the fact I have lost my original feeling and enjoyment for painting which is whats causing me so much trouble now. Hopefully the suggestions from everyone and help I am getting on the forums will help me get that feeling back for my art again.

And yes your suggestion is being considered as a way of doing just that.

Thanks..
Dave Owen

Nature is the painter,
we are simply the scribes who document it
for the people of today and the historians of tomorrow. Anon.
March 26, 2019 at 4:48 am #803402
provenceaquarelle
Default
I am glad my suggestions could be of some help.

I truly hope you will be able to renew the pleasure of painting, because your art is really beautiful.

Maria - Made in Portugal
"Really I don't like human nature unless all candied over with art" - Virginia Woolf

https://womenwagepeace.org.il/en/
March 26, 2019 at 7:31 pm #803401
bongo
Default
I’m a better painter today than I was when I painted wrestlers and weeping beauty queens. I still find those subjects interesting but when I try to paint them now, I find I can’t match what I did in the past. I think as I said even though I’m a better painter, even though I still find those subjects interesting, I no longer have the passion for them I did back then.

I also find that even though I paint only to please myself, I have a need to share my work if only to a few people. I’ve thought about that a lot. If it makes no difference to my work if they like it, love it, or hate it – and if I paint only to please myself — then why do I need to share it with anyone?

Because I need the conversation, the interaction, the exchange of ideas. It’s oxygen, and to be honest – no matter how passionate I am about a certain direction – without interaction it wears heavy on my motivation. In my experience no matter how passionate, self-centered, self-serving, conceited, you are – without conversation, interaction, you will lose the willto paint.

In the penal system, solitary confinement is considered one of the harshest punishments they can give. For good reason. I lost the motivation to paint because I lost the circle of conversationalists I once had and became introverted, hermitized. Now I’m older and wisened and working hard to find a new passion – and when I do, this time I will make sure to keep the conversation going.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/wetcanvas-hdc/Community/images/18-Sep-2019/1999899-sigsmall.jpg
STUDIOBONGO
Author

Posts