Painting - Expression

Expression is what fuels all art. Expression should be and is the purpose for even creating art at all.

Sometimes the intellect can cause us to choke a lot of the expression out of a painting. I'm speaking from lot's of direct experience... 

Though I am an artistic type, I am also very rational and like to plan things out. I always say " I'm all for spontaneity... as long as it's planed."

That's my own struggle to work with as an artist. Yours may be different. You may be super expressive with your art but lazy in regards to craft or unmindful of other critical aspects of your work that are out of sync. 

"Headed Home" by M Francis McCarthy

A challenge for many of us as artists is the attainment of skill and craft without the calcification that can sometimes be the result of applying too much craft.  

Like every other aspect of our lives a balance must be struck between control and passion. Ultimately, passion/expression is the most critical of the two. Art without unique individual expression is boring as hell.

I feel that we must paint from our heart and that direction from the intellect should be at a subsurface type level for the most part.

 

To consistently create good work and still do this,"craft" must become ingrained deep into the psyche. The only way I know of to do this is to paint and draw a lot until those skills become second nature.

"Headed Home" (sketch) by M Francis McCarthy

What else can we do to increase the expressive qualities of our paintings? 

Here's a short list:

• Do some random stuff to you painting now and again. Then, deal with it.
• If you start with a photo, put it away at some point and focus on the painting, as a painting.
• Paint slower, let it well up inside you then express the brush stroke fully.
• Remind yourself while your painting that expression is your main goal and measure each aspect of your work against this. This is very useful for instigating creative color decisions.
• Remember, you don't have to paint the sky blue and the grass green. In fact that's about the worst color combination I can think of in a landscape painting.
• Do not over delineate details. Leave something for the viewer to do. They are quite capable of creating meaning from even the daubiest daub.

Rember, paint from the herat and not the head. Train yourself to get those skills that you may then ignore.

A bit about today's painting "Heading Home" I' pretty happy with heading home but I see much I'd do differently now. I painted this about a year and a half ago after moving into my studio at the Quarry Art Center in Whangarei. I like the colors and loose-ish brush work. 

These days I and transitioning from a more controlled drawing prior to painting into a more expressive and indicative mode in my execution. Stay tuned.

Cheers,

Dark Night of the Soul

It happens to all of us as we journey deep into the realms of art or spirituality at some point. Heck it could happen on a daily basis for some.

What is a dark night of the soul?

It is when you feel lost in the dark. When you think you may not be going the right way with your art or life. It is a lapse in faith and a questioning of judgement. In short, it sucks, it's a bad time.

It happens to me. As a young man I'd say it happened a few times that lasted for months on end. These days it happens to me in sporadic bursts that I have to ride out.

"Clearing Up" (8x8) by M Francis McCarthy

Is it just depression? 

Maybe, but it's probably much more than that. 

It's a necessary readjustment of the self at a core level. All things change as they progress from their beginnings to their end. We must change when it's time as well.

Not one thing in this universe is stationary for very long. Even seemingly permanent rocks when viewed through an electron microscope are hives of energy disguised as solid mass.

"Clearing Up" (5x5) by M Francis McCarthy

What can you do when you feel lost and unsure of your path through the darkness? 

I believe it's best to stay your current course in those tough times while absorbing and contemplating the shock of being unsure.

All the meaning that's felt by you in this life has been created within yourself, by you. Others may feel as you do about any perceived meaningful thing, but you cannot appreciate the meaning in anything without first opening your heart and mind to it and accepting that it may indeed be meaningful.

How does this bear on our topic today?

Simple, You have picked an apparently meaningful occupation and you have given it your attention. If you're despairing because things have gotten a bit sticky now, it's probably best to just see the hard time to it's natural conclusion. 

If you jump ship in a search for something else while experiencing the dark night, most likely you will fail in your next endeavour also.

Better to keep your head down and keep working until the light starts to break on the horizon and you come into a new day filled with the light of understanding.

A bit about today's painting: "Clearing Up". Really, another sky painting. I never tire of painting clouds. I've considered doing paintings with nothing but clouds and no landscape but somehow I can't see it working. 

"Clearing Up" was painted last year and is part of the series I embarked on early in 2012. I'm closing in on finishing that series in the next few months. It's been a lot of work and I've certainly had a bit of a dark night of late as it seems to be dragging on and I have other paintings I want to do. No worries though I'll persevere...

Cheer,

What is a Hack?

A hack is an artist that will do poor quality art, very quickly that they do not care much about generally for money. They are artists whom abuse their gift as artists until they have no gift any longer.

I've know more than a few in my time and not all were artists. Most were though, because becoming a hack is actually the loss of something that was at one time precious.

Copyright Jack Nightingale Artworks

A hack is somebody who used to care but does no longer. The reasons this happens are many but the biggest reason is taking an art job and doing too much art you don't want to, to quickly until eventually you become unable to even create worthwhile art just for the pleasure of doing it.

I know, I may come off a bit melodramatic, but my drama stems from real world experience of the graphic artist grind.

I did not go to university and my college is also limited. My actual qualifications as a graphic artist rested only on my proven ability to get the job done on time and with style.

As a young man it was my dream to make my living doing art full time. My job at Jab-Art Enterprises occasionally allowed me to paint some graphics or do other art related projects but predominately I was a manager there first and artist last.

Copyright Jack Nightingale Artworks

That all changed when I got hired by Jack Nightingale Artworks as an illustrator and production artist. As you can imagine, I was excited and happy to be able to make my living doing the thing I loved all day.

It was great for a good while. My enthusiasm carried me through much of the disillusionment that I experienced.

Why did I become disillusioned?

Well for starers Jack was not in the art biz because of love. He liked money and him and his wife Deidre spent plenty of it. It's no sin to love money but for me the gratification of doing my art well is worth more than any cheap payoff.

Also, the buyers loved to kill good stuff by mucking with it, but even worse Jack himself would make stupid changes based on what he perceived as marketable. Stuff like taking some beautifully colored and rendered dinosaurs and just crapping all over the design by making us recolor them brown and flat.

So many times things liked this happened I could feel the grind wearing on me. But, I never gave in. I never sold out.

If you're in the commercial art business. I'm sure you need your living, but on every job you work on, you should ask yourself. Can I make this better? Is this good? Why is this good?

Never let them get to you and fight the power. I did, I fought every chance I could for us as an art department to produce great work we could be proud of.

And, if you're getting ground down to far. Ask yourself  Is this worth the price I'm paying? Couldn't you make your living doing what you love or at least doing what you love on your own time and making your bread another way that doesn't compromise your soul as an artist?

A bit about these illustrations. Both of these designs were purchased by the San Diego Zoo and printed on a bunch of tee shirts. I'm proud of both of these and they represent some of the good work that we did at Jack's. Both of them exhibit the hand stippling technique that I developed specifically with an eye towards printing on tees.

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Landscape Painting - Craft

Oil painting is a craft. Like carving , clay working, writing a sonnet or any other activity one has to work at mastering. One of the reasons I write this blog is to support and further the craft of Painting.

Does this mean that painting isn't one of the highest of arts?

Definitely not. Only movies and music have an equal power to move us to great emotion. A painting can grab you and before you know it you're ensconced in it's reality, transported to another space, way of being, or seeing.

"Passing Storm"  (8x10) by M Francis McCarthy

For an artist to achieve even a fraction of the potential natively inherent in the form of painting, requires true diligence. Hours of work and study must be expended. The only fuel that can sustain an effort of this magnitude is passion.

Minimal effort will yield shallow results at best. You may be a hobbyist or perhaps just an art explorer. No worries mate, that's fine. If painting is anything it's fun. Or should be. Not every thing we do in our lives has to be considered work.

"Passing Storm"  (5x7) by M Francis McCarthy

Oil painting is my work though and I do it every day for 4 to 6 hours. By that I mean actual brush on board painting. I cannot say I've always approached my painting so consistently. When I first got to New Zealand I was coming off 27 years of full-time labor. I needed a break and I had a great time. Now I'm hitting it hard as..

Examples of the great craft and art of Landscape Painting are easy to find. As are tutorials and instruction geared towards the nuts and bolts craft of creating oil paintings on canvas or board. 

You tube alone is a vast resource. Seeing painting as a craft is a great way to improve and also keeps you from falling in to the amateur/layperson trap of thinking any old crap can equal art. 

BTW Even good abstract work exhibits craft so don't think of abstract art as an escape route (for the lazy though, many do think that way).

Look at your work. Does it stand up as something solid? Will it support the weight of repeated viewing by the interested and disinterested? Even if you are a hobbyist working on your stuff only part time, you can bring the pride of doing something well, to what you do. 

It might mean watching one less TV show or spending more on art supplies than you'd rather. Ultimately this world only pays back if some effort has been extended.

About today's painting "Passing Storm": I painted this last year and though I've sold the 5x7 I still have the larger painting in my studio. 

This ones all about the sky and I enjoyed painting the clouds in freely in both paintings. Also I wanted to contrast the cool grayish sky against the warm rusts and golds of late summer grass.

Cheers,

Drawing - Trying, Failing, Trying Again

Drawing well's not easy. It's easier to trace photos, crib styles and manipulate images with digital media. 

So, why do it?

Training you're eye and hand to cooperate also trains your brain to regard the world in front of your vision more critically. An awesome skill to have but in acquiring this skill, you will fail at it. I did and still do all the the time. 

Some artists make it seem so easy. Nearly effortless.

It's not like that for me. I must try and fail and try again until I can at least walk away knowing I gave it my best shot. Still when you get it right or most of it right, it feels awesome.

"Hamlet" by M Francis McCarthy

When I was young we had no choice if we wanted to make pictures. Even the Xerox copiers weren't that readily available till the late seventies. I love copiers by the way. Sure to be a post about them at some point.

I interject a lot of drawings on this blog that's mostly about painting because I feel drawing is the absolute best foundation for any artist. This blog is like my secret box I share of drawings, paintings and dreams. I like to write about and show pictures of stuff I love now or loved back in the day.

Also, I have progressed to a certain level as an artist and I enjoy teaching what I've learned and giving back something to a universe I'm grateful to be a part of with you.

If you're working at your art. Don't give up when it's gets difficult and don't be hard on yourself. Don't compare your work to other artists unfavorably either. Cut yourself some some slack there. You must work at it and never fear failure. If your not having some failures you can be sure your not doing it right or your not trying hard enough.

A word about "Hamlet". The reference for this illustration came out of an old book I acquired. He was drawn back in 1990. At that time I was really fixated in trying to replicate the feel of my pencil drawings in ink. His torso was distorted on purpose. Seems silly now in the age of easy Photoshop distortions. But back in 1990 I was into it. This was inked with a rapidograph or several rapidographs.

Cheers,

Landscape Painting - Don't Over Paint

Here is one I have to tell myself all the time.

Don't over paint.

I like to plan out my paintings. I take pictures, do drawings and paint a small color sketch.

Then I project my drawing up onto my board and trace it with charcoal. After that I finish that drawing with a brush and sienna and black. This functions as my under painting.

The process is the same for the 5x7's and their larger brothers. One difference between them is that I draw the scene with charcoal directly unto the 5x7 board while I project unto the larger. Also I do only one color layer on the 5x7's and up to three or more on the large version of the painting.

Day's End (9x12) by M Francis McCarthy

Once in a while. I like my 5x7's better than their larger brothers. I enjoy their simpler forms and open brushwork  

I sometimes have a tendency going back to my earliest drawing days, to over render forms and over delineate the details. I call this activity being "the robot". I'm a better painter than a robot so I watch for it.

Day's End (5x7) by M Francis McCarthy

We all have our crosses to bear as individual artists.

How do I address mine? 

The only way I know how, by painting a lot and looking, painting and criticizing. Always trying for better. 

I also study the work of artists I admire and try to absorb some of their practice into mine where it's relevant and possible.

Every artist has their own way to their unique vision. 

Sometimes it's good to strike a balance between what you know and what you should know. Question your assumptions a bit once in awhile. If you were right about everything you though was good in your art, all the time... 

Wouldn't it be better?

Cheers,

Style - A Byproduct

At some point I think every artist becomes obsessed by artistic style.

My first awareness came as my interest in comics grew back in the 70's. One artist would have a realistic style like Neal Adams while another like Jack Kirby could verge on the abstract.

It's often too easy to get caught up in the surface aspects of style. It's easy to disregard strong draftsmanship and structure in an over fixation with style.

Boss Tweed by M Francis McCarthy

Ultimately, style should be and is naturally, a byproduct of who you are as an artist. It should not be worn like a suit of clothes that is put on, changed often then discarded for something else.

As a hired gun illustrator I was called on to mimic many different styles as part of my job. So many I can't count them all. 

I'll admit I took pride in my ability to mimic the styles of others but such work can become tiring. It drains the soul and as a consequence a toll is taken for the wage earned.

Mimicking the style of an artist you admire for a drawing or two is something I recommend all beginning artists do at times. It can really open your eyes to the means of craft that artists you admire use to create their art. It can also become a terrible crutch, if the learners spirit is coming from the wrong place.

Jim Fisk  by M Francis McCarthy

This becomes a real problem only if you're copying the style of only one artist. An attitude of exploration and learning on the other hand can pay big dividends.

Regarding developing your personal style in various mediums, I feel that it comes best as a natural result of doing tons of drawing. Piles of paintings and practicing both as often as possible.

The personal style that results from that kind of effort is far harder for other artists to replicate as it is based on a titanium foundation of hard work.

Today's drawings we're done with pencil on paper back in 1990 or so.

Boss Tweed and Jim Fisk were crooked politicians in New York back abound the turn of the 20th century. I enjoyed trying to capture their smug self satisfied expressions.

I've given the drawings vignetted borders to sort of help along the sad fact that these are scans of photo copies. You get a sense of the drawing at least. It will be great to scan the actual drawings in one day.

Cheers,

Art and Imortality

Why do you create art? What is the reason? Is it to impress girls or for some chance at fame? Money? Therapy?  Recognition from your peers? What is it?

We all must have our own answer to that question. One answer is all of the above. But that doesn't seem to address the deepest cravings of artists to create, to communicate and relate. 

In many cases all we have of our ancestors besides their DNA is their art. It reaches to us across the millennia and connects us to the minds, thoughts and feeling of those who lived before.

Yuzex by M Francis McCarthy

In a sense this has rendered those who created art from the past immortal. Or, at least their thoughts, ideas and visions have attained that state.

What is it in us that causes this drive to interact with the future? To leave something of ourselves behind that will last? What drove those ancestors of ours to do the same?

My personal answer to these questions is: Yes I want to leave a bit of something behind. Something good. Something that will be worth keeping around by people living in the future I can only dream about. I'm not obsessively fixated by these ideas. But, these things do cross my mind.

Being a working artist/hired gun for those thirteen years, I was often engaged in creating the temporary, the ephemeral. I know many other commercial artists that must do the same everyday. 

It's hard to create something great only to see it discarded later. Not that there's anything wrong with artists who set out with that intent. Go ahead and build sand castles or hire your art gun to the highest bidder. Nothing wrong with it. But...

It's a fact that we are all here for a time, then we aren't. One can deny it, make light of it or ignore it but the wise person realizes that their life is an expression of the infinite and that every moment of it is sacred. 

Life cannot be denied and art is the ultimate expression of creation. Every artist creates and communicates what their time was like. What their feelings were. What they saw or wanted to see and what they believed in. Cheers.

Inspiration - Past, Present, Future

Every artist must face their own best work. Whether their previous artistic highs inspire or torment them is one of the greatest factors in determining their success as artists. I have seen many friends and even other professional artists hit this particular block.

As for me, I am always aware of my previous work and I like to keep the best of it around to contemplate and appreciate. That said, I try to wear my work lightly. Ultimately I feel that good art is an expression of not just the artist alone, but of the Universe itself. 

When one recons with the effort and different elements that must go into even a bad work of art, the mind boggles at the complexity of creating a high, artistic achievement.

By the Brook  (12x18) by M Francis McCarthy

I've written in the past about artistic blocks. The best way to eliminate blocks is to keep your breaks from creating art, brief. In other words, you should be making art all the time. Inspiration does show up for those that are actively pursuing their vision as an artist.

There is many a talented artist that is unable to produce consistently high quality work. For the most part these poor folks are laboring under a certain type of belief in "inspiration". Their belief? That inspiration always strikes the artist like a bolt from the heavens, compelling them to rise off their bottoms to engage with their waiting easels and finally create that masterpiece.

Sure, we've all had an experience similar to the example above. The truth is that those sort of inspired moments happen most frequently in the early part of our artistic journey. As an artist progresses and creates a body of work, they taper off. What replaces these "lightning strikes" as the artist matures?

By the Brook  (5x7) by M Francis McCarthy

The answer for me is that I see inspiration as a collaboration between myself and the Universe. I have a desire to create beauty and I conspire with the universe to do so. I feel a "flow" well up from within. This feels natural like breathing. Creation should feel like that. Like a natural occurrence, like eating or breathing. Something you can do, something you must do. 

Ideally, just like breathing you let your work come and go, ebb and flow, unselfconsciously. Expressing easily and naturally in the moment. 

In closing, look at and learn from your best work and also the best work of other artists that may be doing things that you admire. 

However, always keep your reflections positive. Fear and art are a bad combination. Nature favors the brave. 

So, be present with the art you're doing now and make art a flow in your life, not a stop, start and struggle. I've more to say on this topic in future posts. Enough philosophical rambling for one day.