Writing about Painting is Harder-er.

Painting is Hard. Painting from Life is Harder. Writing about Painting is Harder-er.

Sometimes, simple questions can be really difficult to answer. Have you experienced that?  Why do I paint?   What is my art about?  What interests me?  Where do I see my art going in the future?  I really struggle with these kinds of, seemingly, easy questions.

Communicating is hard, right?

Like many artists, I’ve struggled with writing an artist statement that is concise and not completely generic.  To the point, that it has been a barrier to submitting my work into shows and getting my website launched.  If you want to be able to do more push-ups, you need to do more push ups.  So, if I want to be better at writing about my art practice, I need to start writing about my art practice.

So. Welcome to my blog.

To get me started, I’ll probably begin with practical topics that are more in line with the technical writing that I do at work.  This might include some information on how I’ve set up my studio space and built some of my own studio equipment like a wall easel, a brush drawer, and an adjustable drawing table.  I can go over my acrylic plein air kit and also show how you can build an inexpensive shelf and mast easel system for a tripod.  My art library is always growing.  Perhaps I could do a recommended reading list and some book reviews.

What do you think, does that sound good?

Then, once I’ve got some momentum going, I can sprinkle in some more abstract writing. Eventually, working my way up to the tough questions above.  Some artists name their paintings before they start.  For fun, here are some future blog post titles: “The ‘Goldfish in a Plastic Bag’ Story”, “Don’t Forget to Pack the Matches!”, “Technical Drafting Trick: Drawing Circles in Perspective”, “The ‘It’s a Lovely Shade of Brown’ Story”, “Don’t Forget to Pack the Labrador Puppy!”, “Change the Channel: How to Train your Mind to Show You a More Beautiful World”, “The ‘Just duct tape it to me’ story”, “Technical Drafting Trick: Thinking in Layers”

That’s the plan. Wish me luck.

JW