An artist's worst critic

There's one critic every artist should fear...themselves. Being critical is sometimes needed to produce better quality work the next time, but artists are terribly hard on themselves.

The first thing to know is that you will never attain perfection. You also need to know that mistakes are how you learn and grow. Art is expression, technique just a tool to get your point across succinctly. Things you may see as failures are noticeable to no one but yourself in the main...sometimes we get lost in the process, caught up in the details. 

Time is a great mitigator. It's good to take a look with fresh eyes days later...not just looking for improvements to make but to see things as a whole. I've found that often the pieces I'm least happy about are the ones others like the most, and forced to think about it, realize it is the rawness that attracts. 

People drawn to art aren't looking for perfection and usually not even great technique...they are looking to connect emotionally. The rawness is pure emotion, the details sometimes afterthought and less pure.

It's been said before...paint or sculpt just until you've said what you need to and then stop. Sometimes the detail is necessary to the message, but most often not. Make it real. 

Whoops, forgot to put up a new artist site of the week (got so excited about the moose lol)

This week I'd like to introduce you to a wonderful Australian realist oil painter, Martin Clarke. He does the most beautiful seascapes I've ever seen and has some wonderful portrait work too.