Golden Afternoon 5x7
Hello and welcome to Tonalist paintings by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's study is 'Golden Afternoon' 5x7.
You can follow the progression of this study as it was painted on today's video. The video also features my usual rambling narration, so please enjoy it.
I thought it would be good today to talk about failure. Failing is a part of doing art. If you are not failing once in a while you're not trying very hard. For some of us this can be immobilizing and a real detriment to doing art. I cannot say that I enjoy failing at all personally. I'm always left somewhat dumbstruck in a state of disbelief. How could this happen to me after all the good things?
This inability to deal with failure is more prevalent when you're young I think. I certainly had more of an issue with it when I was younger. Now I tend to take it in stride. I think this is because I have failed so many times now that I know that it is just a part of living and making art that is unavoidable.
When I am advising new painters or people interested in doing art, I always tell them not to worry at all about the quality of their work as they are learning. When you are starting out it makes no sense at all to be concerned about this, because failing is inevitable and it is the flipside of succeeding. You cannot have success without failure. A teacher of mine once told me that you had to do 2000 bad drawings before you ever did a good one.
I was speaking a bit about my experience working in the studio on today's video. I worked on three paintings today and the second one has been problematic for me (even before I started painting it). My intuition was telling me that there were problems with the motif and problems in the composition that I had not solved. I forged ahead though. All for nought.
You need to have some confidence as an artist. You need to be brave sometimes. This can be the difference between a good and a bad painting more often than you would think. Knowing that you're going to make it, knowing that you can make something work is very powerful.
Conversely, there are times that it doesn't matter how positive you are of success, failure is coming for you. Best to just take the bad ones as they come, and get up and keep moving forward. It is accumulated experience that adds to good work.
One thing I am happy about, as I progress as a painter ,I tend to do more good paintings than bad. I am learning more and more every day what it is that will work for me artistically. It's a good feeling when I've completed a 5x7 and I know that it will not work as a larger painting. It's an even better feeling when while working with the reference in the computer, I realize that the motif I am pursuing is not going to be a good painting and so abandon it before continuing.
Of course the best feeling of all, is when a painting comes out well and you knew it was going to be good even before you start painting it. It's can be easy to forget the process when things go well. Over time we forget most of the steps by which the painting was created.
The painting is now an object existing with us and moving through time with us. This does not seem to hold true of the bad paintings that I keep around. When I look at them I remember the struggle and the pain. And that is the reason why I destroyed today's failure and felt good about it.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about Golden Afternoon 5x7; this is a painting that came together quite easily. The vertical format really works well with the motif and my decision to painted in a semi-monochromatic way was also pretty successful.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Golden Afternoon by M Francis McCarthy, 5x7 Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
You can follow the progression of this study as it was painted on today's video. The video also features my usual rambling narration, so please enjoy it.
I thought it would be good today to talk about failure. Failing is a part of doing art. If you are not failing once in a while you're not trying very hard. For some of us this can be immobilizing and a real detriment to doing art. I cannot say that I enjoy failing at all personally. I'm always left somewhat dumbstruck in a state of disbelief. How could this happen to me after all the good things?
This inability to deal with failure is more prevalent when you're young I think. I certainly had more of an issue with it when I was younger. Now I tend to take it in stride. I think this is because I have failed so many times now that I know that it is just a part of living and making art that is unavoidable.
When I am advising new painters or people interested in doing art, I always tell them not to worry at all about the quality of their work as they are learning. When you are starting out it makes no sense at all to be concerned about this, because failing is inevitable and it is the flipside of succeeding. You cannot have success without failure. A teacher of mine once told me that you had to do 2000 bad drawings before you ever did a good one.
I was speaking a bit about my experience working in the studio on today's video. I worked on three paintings today and the second one has been problematic for me (even before I started painting it). My intuition was telling me that there were problems with the motif and problems in the composition that I had not solved. I forged ahead though. All for nought.
You need to have some confidence as an artist. You need to be brave sometimes. This can be the difference between a good and a bad painting more often than you would think. Knowing that you're going to make it, knowing that you can make something work is very powerful.
Conversely, there are times that it doesn't matter how positive you are of success, failure is coming for you. Best to just take the bad ones as they come, and get up and keep moving forward. It is accumulated experience that adds to good work.
One thing I am happy about, as I progress as a painter ,I tend to do more good paintings than bad. I am learning more and more every day what it is that will work for me artistically. It's a good feeling when I've completed a 5x7 and I know that it will not work as a larger painting. It's an even better feeling when while working with the reference in the computer, I realize that the motif I am pursuing is not going to be a good painting and so abandon it before continuing.
Of course the best feeling of all, is when a painting comes out well and you knew it was going to be good even before you start painting it. It's can be easy to forget the process when things go well. Over time we forget most of the steps by which the painting was created.
The painting is now an object existing with us and moving through time with us. This does not seem to hold true of the bad paintings that I keep around. When I look at them I remember the struggle and the pain. And that is the reason why I destroyed today's failure and felt good about it.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Golden Afternoon 5x7 (Detail) |