On Painting and Writing

Last night I was having a discussion with a painter on getting out of the doldrums. Painters will know exactly what I am talking about: those days (weeks, months, etc.) where you know or think that you know that your present direction in art has run its course.

Let's say you made a painting of how late summer light hits a silo. It is a really good painting. In fact, after that painting is done, you realize that there is a lot more to explore in the light and shadows in the corn field against the silo. You paint a series. Your friends like them, you think they are good, you even sell a few.

Then you go into the studio and realize, "Wow! I can crank out another series, but it will really just be formula. I think I have observed all that I can right now on this, and cannot really dig deeper into it." So you decide to do something else, but nothing really strikes you as that interesting or worth painting about either.

So, I told this painter friend that the best way to get out of the doldrums is to work towards quantity rather than quality: just crank out some paintings. Set up a still life, even with the most hackneyed elements, and paint. Paint it with photorealist precision. Paint it in the style of Cezanne. Paint it in the style of Thiebaud. Adjust the subject if you have to (a sign that something is clicking), but just keep painting the things.

Alternately, pick a subject that you don't know a lot about, for instance, the different species of trees, and draw and paint them until you really know how to render a Modesto ash or an elm.

The idea is that we are surrounded by interesting visual things, but we start investing our symbolism with too many ideas and neglect to look. Or we fool ourselves into thinking that what we have been doing for the last few years is the only way we can do anything.

As of last night this painter friend decided that the best way to do something was to scrape down and brutalize paintings that never really worked. I think that is a good idea, too, as it allows us to kill sacred cows to make some good t-bones.

So, that brings us to writing.

Last night I promised an entry a day. I was about to flake on that promise and go to bed. Then I realized that even if I had nothing to say, I should at least come here to report that I have nothing to say. Of course I have plenty to say, but it is stuff that is too complicated for me to think about right now, so what I really lacked was a good amount of small things to say.

Then I realized that I needed to apply the same discipline I was advising my friend to do. And, voila! A topic for a blog entry that was better than "well, nothing much to say here, come back tomorrow!"

Quantity! Quantity! Quantity! Measure the paintings by the inch. Measure the verbiage by the characters!

Now, this of course makes me think of my own painting. I think I have to go set up a still life right now....

Posted by erik at September 17, 2004 12:40 AM | TrackBack