What's a Good Artist?

What does it take to be an artist? 
Well, it takes a desire to create art, and the initiative to act on that desire. If you've ever drawn a picture, molded clay into a form you've imagined, glued paper scraps into a collage, or in some other way have designed and assembled a creative work, then you ARE an artist. 

What does it take to be a good artist?

 Some would say it requires a Bachelors or a Master's degree in art, and yet one of the world's most well-known and best-loved artist, Van Gogh, attended several different art schools with sporadic attendance, and didn't actually graduate from any of them. He also disagreed with much of what he was taught. In spite of that, he produced a great number of treasured, works such as the two below... Click HERE to read the rest of this post

Mushroom from My Mind

Practice makes perfect, so they say.  I'm not so sure that's true with art, since in a sense art is never really perfect, there is always some room for improvement.  So lets just say practice makes better.

So anyway, yesterday I had an off day, I spent most of time updating information on various websites and such, and didn't make time to do art in the morning.  I told myself it was okay because I was going to go to an artist league meeting and would start a new painting there.  Then a friend dropped by unexpectedly and stayed and talked for a long time, and soon it was too late for the meeting.

Still, I wanted to at least do a quick sketch, I started sketching my tea kettle, but wasn't really inspired by that so I stopped before I got finished with it.

I decided that it was a good day to do a pencil sketch from my imagination instead of drawing from life, but I didn't have much time left, I had only a few minutes before it was time to leave with the family for church.

So I ended up doing this quick sketch of a mushroom, or is it a toadstool, or a fairy hut?  Well, mine was pretty plain looking, just a basic sketch, no dots on it, no colors, no frogs sitting on it or butterflies hovering nearby, but it was still a little touch of practice on a day when I would otherwise have not exercised my artistic muscle at all. So here is today's sketch, more of just a little doodle.

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Fine Art America is the place to go for Prints of all my Paintings.

 

My etsy shop is the place to go to buy my originals and request commissioned work. A few select prints are available here as well!

Word for the Year

Have you noticed the trend on blogs of selecting a word for the year?  I have been debating what word I want for my year, it could be "create", it could be "vibrancy", both of those struck me as worthy of being selected... but instead, I am choosing a word that might come as surprise to many.

That's right, my word is discipline.  Why? Because its what I need in so many parts of my life.  I need it in the area of health and nutrition, I need it in the area of housekeeping, I need it in the area of spirituality, and I desperately need it in the areas of art.

If I am going to improve my art and see my life as an artist grow, I simply must discipline myself to work on it regularly.  I love doing it, but so often I put it off, and don't start.  I need to at least sketch four or five times a week, but preferably be working on more than just simple sketches and putting in time on my paintings, try new mediums, and learn new techniques.

So my word for 2015 is Discipline.

Thank you for reading! I welcome your suggestions on how to make this blog more interesting to you!