This is my first post on my first blog. It is a natural extension of my practice as both painter and teacher. As a retired professional writer and incorrigible explainer, I suppose it was inevitable.
Painting well is about as difficult as any undertaking you might choose in life. Like music or writing or golf, painting for most people takes years of practice to achieve even basic competency. Yet with enough passion and persistence almost anyone can become a competent painter.
The secret is not talent, but persistence born of passion. That is, you need to be passionate enough in your desire to improve as a painter that you are willing to persist in your study and practice despite the many frustrations and disappointments you will--not may but will--encounter along the way.
By talent, most people mean an aptitude for some activity well in excess of that possessed by the rest of us. Talent exists, and it is silly to suggest otherwise, but it is overrated. Talent determines whether you have the potential to become, say, a Tiger Woods, a Yo Yo Ma, or a Richard Schmid, but it has little or nothing to do with whether you become a competent golfer, musician, or painter. Even Tiger Woods, Yo Yo Ma, and Richard Schmid needed years of practice to achieve greatness. Watching Tiger Woods, for example, botch a putt or drive his ball into the rough demonstrates that talent alone is never enough.
Passion and persistence, however, will take you a long way. This blog is about helping you, as a novice or intermediate painter, to speed your journey. In addition to offering practical tips and unsolicited advice, I also plan to address more fundamental issues that face every artist, such as fear of failure, crippling self-criticism, unrealistic expectations, and uncertainties about subject matter and style.
Painting well is about as difficult as any undertaking you might choose in life. Like music or writing or golf, painting for most people takes years of practice to achieve even basic competency. Yet with enough passion and persistence almost anyone can become a competent painter.
The secret is not talent, but persistence born of passion. That is, you need to be passionate enough in your desire to improve as a painter that you are willing to persist in your study and practice despite the many frustrations and disappointments you will--not may but will--encounter along the way.
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| Cliffside Kiva, oil |
Passion and persistence, however, will take you a long way. This blog is about helping you, as a novice or intermediate painter, to speed your journey. In addition to offering practical tips and unsolicited advice, I also plan to address more fundamental issues that face every artist, such as fear of failure, crippling self-criticism, unrealistic expectations, and uncertainties about subject matter and style.
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| David, acrylic |
I am not a famous painter, nor a master painter, but I am a competent, experienced, devoted painter and teacher whose works in oil, acrylic, and watercolor have been juried into local, regional, and national shows. Shown here are examples of my work in oil, acrylic, and watercolor. For more examples, please see my website at www.stevewhitney.com
As painters we are all on the same path. Some of us are just starting, others have traveled so far that we can barely make them out in the distance, and the rest of us are somewhere in between.
I am still headed down the path.
And there's no end in sight.
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