Sometimes I get so caught up in trying to finish paintings, or the business aspect of my art, that I can lose track of what I actually am doing in my art. What is this art all about? Where is all this headed?
I know that I am dead set on improving, and I am always looking for signs of this in my art, but forgetting to ask this larger, more salient question about overall direction can often postpone one’s creative progress.
Just because the work looks better might not necessarily mean we are headed in a direction that is truly ours. Just like travelling down a road in order to arrive at a destination, there are circuitous routes and there are direct routes. From time to time I like to take both of these.
However, what I don’t particularly enjoy is repeatedly going into cul-de-sacs. Those give you the feeling of moving, but since you actually are just going in circles you always arrive at the same place over and over again. Ultimately this leads to boredom and although your work is repeating quite nicely, it is, in the end, remaining the same. The whole concept of going somewhere, the evolution, at least for now, has quietly come to a standstill.
And sometimes this is fine of course. It isn’t always about getting somewhere. It is ok to have a resting place. But eventually the innate desire for one’s work to become more aligned with oneself begins to grow.
So how do you find your way back onto a road that is actually going somewhere you are pretty sure you want to go?
It is a challenging question. It is also one, I have come to realize, that needs to be asked frequently. The answer, at least in part, can be found, not by trying to imagine unmade work in the future but by simply turning around from time to time and looking at the arc of your art behind you.
This is just such a simple idea but it is one that I so often forget. The trail of work, the evidence of my past efforts, some good, some not so good, that is building up behind me holds significant parts of the answer to this very relevant question.
Make it a habit to review what you have been making. Look for aspects of the work that still resonate with you. In other words, what is a Yes! And more importantly, what is a No? It might be color, it might be some kind of spontaneity or mark making but whatever it is, if it still is relevant, if it still sparking for you then re-affirm this in the future work. Keep it.
Conversely, if there are aspects that no longer feel like you, be proactive and let them go. This actually is the harder action to take. It is the same kind of nagging difficulty with letting go of all those clothes that, although are perfectly fine, are no longer like you. It is hard but important to shed them.
If you can move forward with your thinking more focused upon what you actually do love, what aspects of your art making that have in the past brought you more alive and unceremoniously leave behind those that no longer do, then your art will shift. It will improve.
It might feel a bit foreign initially to be setting off in a new direction, especially in a car that most of your baggage has been removed from. However it is this partial emptiness, the spaciousness that you have created that enables the new, more relevant aspects of your future art to be ushered in.
It is exciting and entirely possible, now that you are moving again, that just up ahead or around that next bend, you just might find even more of the answer you have been looking for…
In gratitude, Nicholas
19 Comments
Hi! I’m
Nicholas Wilton
the founder of Art2Life.
With over 20 years experience as a working artist and educator, I’ve developed a systematic approach that brings authenticity, spontaneity and joy back into the creative process.
Join me and artists from all over the world in our Free Art2Life Artists Facebook Group or learn more here about Art2Life.
First – your painting is amazing. Love the colors & composition. Big YES!
This is such a good read for me this morning. I just finished a series of 15 paintings for a show I’m part of in a couple of weeks. Big sigh of relief, but now I have another show in July (2018) and I want to springboard from this finished work into something more – I want to expand & grow & I have time. I will study past pieces – in fact I’ll print out images and write big yeses on the parts I like of each piece. Onward. Thank you Nicholas!
Hi Nicholas,
A Very Happy New Year to you. I have finally managed to work out the way to add a comment so I hope this works.
I have been following your blog for the past six months as I like both the advice you give and the energy you transmit so generously. There are few books or videos that draw me in the way your blog has, so I am very grateful for the support you don’t realise you have been giving me ! It can be a very solitary business, facing that easel alone, and mostly I love it but sometimes I need another person’s viewpoint and experience to kick-start the process.
I am going to try sending this now….all the way from County Wexford in Ireland !
Sive.
How amazing that you have tuned into my ‘sankalpa’ for this year which is ‘spaciousness’, (do check out my New year message on my FB page). It really is time for me to review my art and forge a path towards creating work that truly reflects myself. You may even find me enrolling on your online course this year to help me on that path … with thanks 🙂
Those “cul-de-sacs” as you mentioned were making it so difficult for me to go forward. Great analogy. I was painting a lot, but literally going in circles. Definitely agree that taking a long hard look at my new painting alongside some of my older ones has helped me tremendously to recapture my vision to my art. Thanks so much!
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8fa6e64e1f74d6c355f96f7c5af1e888ef618383ddf37c862186cd5988472afe.jpg So true! What you’ve said here really resonated with me and helped me understand why some of the work I’m currently doing is exciting for me and others done in a way I used to be excited about end up being scraped off and started again. I was coming to that realization gradually and suddenly you’ve put it into words. I enjoy reading your posts. I read every single one of them.
That is gorgeous. Thanks for posting it. Lisa
Good point! Especially comparing past art to clothing that’s not me anymore.
Thanks!
This may be the most important essay that I will read in 2018! Thank you for sharing this with us. I know that I have to move on in many aspects of my life, but most importantly, my art. These a wonderful thoughts that resonate deeply with me. I have never examined my older work. I just have trusted and flowed along on my journey. But authenticity is the root of this. Has my work evolved? Is is more ME? I have felt this vague dissatisfaction and even have struck out blindly from realism to abstraction recently, but still hanging on to the idea that I can always go back! If I hang on to what is authentic and let go of what is no longer an expression of my true self, if I examine my work for what excites me now, and keep only these elements, I will be on my way. Bless you Nicholas! I am the one sending this “in gratitude”.
Jane
Yes, this rings so true. How I have found my way through by trial and error is to make a set of pdf pages in Adobe Bridge of thumbnail-images as a photo proof sheet of work done the past year or so. And additional pages with images of my recent work that I ‘like’ for one reason or another. I review both sets of pages for commonalities of design, color, subject matter, handling, and then look carefully at the work I ‘like’ to see where the paths cross and at those points are where I begin to follow a slightly redirected route/path. Hoping to not go completely off the road and into a snowbank. Good luck to everyone in the northeast as we settle in for a big storm today.
This is a terrific painting full of vivid colour, whimsy, and lyrical symbols. It is a good cipher for your thoughts on how to find your way after you let go of old baggage. Maybe discovering what is old baggage is the hardest part since we don’t know what our assumptions are!
So true for all areas of life. I was plein air painting regularly with a group for years. It was great and wonderful and I learned so much and grew and improved so much. After a time, though, I found myself just setting up and painting whatever and not being thoughtful and selective enough. And the group aspect sort of fostered just getting a painting finished. I realized I am more interested in studies and not always finished saleable works with plein air work. Taking more focus and time with something specific I am there to work on and discover. A slower more deliberate process. But more true to my own spirit. Thanks for all your posts.
Thank you for sharing your art..and your heart. Been on many culdesacs!
That is when you have to be thankful you are not in a gallery and no one expects anything. It is very freeing and a great way to explore different avenues in your art. There is no need to do the same theme and style over and over. I think often artist get in galleries too soon before they have truly discovered their place. But it is fascinating to hear from Nicolas that even though he is very successful he continues to want to discover and learn something new. I think often that successful artists stay in their zone and never change, which makes me so proud of Nicolas .
Love the new subtle variations in this piece. Thank you once again for a thoughtful and vital insight. Here’s a happy New Year to all of my fellow artists as we strive to evolve and improve our work!
Julie Quinn
Those pesky cul-de-sacs! Thank you again for sharing your wisdom.
Thank you so much.
You always seem to hit the nail right on the head…Thanks Nicholas xxx
Get out of my head!
At first I dismiss all that I have been painting that day. Then after some time I get more kind to myself and can see what is good and what is not. I learn from this and I understand that the goal IS the journey and developement goes as spirals upwards. Not straight.