Are We There Yet?

Another week has managed to slip by and I’ve just finished (?) my first painting using gouache as a medium.

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I am reasonable pleased with it and will most likely try another one soon, though I have a couple of oils in the pipeline that need attention too. The question mark above brings to mind something that I think all artists ponder. Namely, the thought; ‘is this painting / drawing really done, or am I just not seeing the little tweaks that will polish it off?’ When I look at artists’ comments about their work, I often see the remark “ I think I’ll call this one done.”, which leads me to believe that this lack of surety about how “done” a work is, is somewhat endemic with visual artists perhaps more than with some other creative endeavours, though I suspect this nagging doubt plagues writers, composers, or any variety of artist.

I know that when I “finish” a painting, I’ll let it sit for a few days or weeks, then come back to it and try to see it objectively, though that’s pretty hard. My eye always picks out the little imperfections that exist in any hand-worked product and I agonise over whether to do something about them or not.  My left brain wants technical perfection, and the right brain wants artistic perfection; not exactly the same things.  Coming from a career as a military and civilian pilot, I tend toward the technical perfection side and find that it takes quite a bit of effort to “loosen up” and accept things that are not of a photo-realistic nature.  Still, without these challenges, life would be boring.  A bit of tension helps in the process of creation when it comes to art.  At least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

In the current lockdownish situation, we are still unable to visit museums, but there continue to be online / virtual exhibitions and events of which we can take advantage.  Here are a few to think about:

The Art Fund has several virtual tours and events available that you can access here:  https://www.artfund.org/whats-on/art-and-stuff

The National Gallery keeps adding to their online events and exhibitions:  https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/stories

There are also a number of upcoming events and lectures available on Facebook which are art related:  

The Art of Frederic Leighton and Leighton House

https://www.facebook.com/events/3491467100931722

Online Lecture; El Greco and Toledo

https://www.facebook.com/events/246206277046567/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22mechanism%22%3A%22your_upcoming_events_unit%22%2C%22surface%22%3A%22bookmark%22%7D]%7D

Charles Rennie Macintosh: More than just a Tearoom:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1708302062662534/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22mechanism%22%3A%22your_upcoming_events_unit%22%2C%22surface%22%3A%22bookmark%22%7D]%7D

Edward Hopper: The Art of Isolation

https://www.facebook.com/events/415201243026173

As usual, here are some links to some of the best Aviation art around:

Ben Holmes has just published his web site. Go here to see some really great work: https://benart.studio/?fbclid=IwAR14LTL0WSDlKZ9pnGftZV_BuIAuKEYLVoP-Za5B760q41bwDUd4KZ4wN-0

Graham Henderson: https://grahamhendersongava.co.uk

Steve Stonestreet: https://www.facebook.com/StonestreetsArt/

Stay safe and healthy: until next time,

Cheers