Nothing is original!
Nobody is born with a style or a voice. As children, we learn by copying our parents, our teachers, our friends, our heroes, and our role models. As a teenager, you probably remember trying on a variety of personas, trends, and lifestyles to see what fit. I have tried being a barn rat, a blue-suited businesswoman in heels, a Brazilian "gatinha", and a “Lily Pulitzer” preppy before my current Bohemian Artsy self. In fact, we try on personas all our lives. We copy our family members, our friends, our film and TV heroes, we search online for the latest trends to copy in food, clothing, and home design and we even choose where to vacation by following the recommendations of others.
We mirror the people we surround ourselves with. If you want to know more about yourself, look at whom you admire, follow and copy. You’re only as good as the people you surround yourself with. Pay attention to what the people around you are talking about, what they’re doing, who they are with as those are the things you are drawing to yourself. When you surround yourself with people you can learn from, those who are way more talented, smarter, more successful than you it elevates your game in every area.
If you want to be a better artist, surround yourself with artists who inspire you. Hire the best teachers you can afford. Attend workshops, join art clubs. Create a circle around you of artists who live life the way you want to live, create the work you want to own, have the kind of friends you want to call your own, the kind of success you wish were yours, too. The people in your artist circle do not need to live in your town, they do not need to know you personally, they do not even need to be alive to inspire you and elevate your work.
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The newest member of my own artist circle is Bernie Fuchs. He was a famous illustrator who died in 2009. Among other things, Fuchs was commissioned for the illustration of four U.S. postage stamps released in 1998. The stamps featured folk musicians Huddie ‘Leadbelly” Ledbetter, Woody Guthrie, Sonny Terry, and Josh White. Fuchs also illustrated several children's picture books, including Ragtime Tumpie and Ride Like the Wind!. He also painted portraits of several U.S. Presidents, including John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan, as well as of athletes and celebrities such as Muhammad Ali, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Katharine Hepburn. In 1975, Bernie Fuchs was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame, an honor reserved for great illustrators such as Winslow Homer, Frederic Remington, Charlie Russell, Norman Rockwell, and Maxfield Parrish. I admire the energy and movement he adds to his paintings and the way he creates the glare of sunlight. I don’t understand his process yet, but I know that his body of work is still here to guide and teach me.
If you can’t think of how to begin your artist circle, notice when an artwork grabs your attention and awakens your curiosity. It might be in a museum, a gallery, a store, on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, or at a street fair. Create a photo album on your phone called “Inspiration” and snap photos of art that speak to your heart. Collect art you love in an Instagram folder and a board on Pinterest. Scroll through these files when you are looking for direction and inspiration.
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Bernie Fuchs "Love in San Francisco" |
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Once you notice a particular artist appearing frequently in your collections, begin hanging out with them. Follow their posts, watch their videos, read their books, find out everything you can about them and their work. Discover three people the artist loved and learn everything you can about them too. The great thing about dead or remote masters is that they cannot refuse you as an apprentice. They left their lesson plans in their work. Research their life story, dig into their portfolio, their transitions, growth, drama, writings, interviews, musings. Become a fan.
Even if your artist is dead, or will never write back, write a fan letter. Make something to show your appreciation. Answer a question they’ve asked, improve on their work in some way. Do this without expecting any response. Do it for yourself to clarify what it is you admire about them and what you would like to add to your own toolbox from theirs.
Allow your favored artist to mentor you as you copy one of their artworks. Copying the works of a master is a method used to teach painting since oil paint was first invented back in the 1400s. Plagiarism is trying to pass off someone else’s work as your own. Copying is reverse-engineering; taking the work apart to see how the artist did it. There is no better way to learn.
Add the study of the life of the artist while you copy their work to get a glimpse into their mind. What did they wonder about, what questions, what obsessions held their attention throughout their career?
If you can internalize your artist’s way of looking at the world rather than merely mimicking the surface of their work you will be able to be more than a “knockoff” or imitation of them. You don’t want to just look like your hero, you want to see the world the way they do and become a part of their creative legacy.
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Bernie Fuchs "Granddaughter Esme" |
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Notice where your copies fall short of the artist’s mastery. As human beings, we are incapable of making perfect copies. What makes your copy different from theirs? That is what you should amplify and transform into your own work.
Once you have a good understanding of the artist’s thinking and working process it is time to move beyond imitation and into emulation. Emulation means being equal to or moving beyond the master. Could you create the artwork that is missing from their catalog - the one you would love to see? What did they miss? What didn’t they make? If they were still alive what would they be making today? Could you make a deliberately imperfect copy - what about a mutation? What if two of your favorite artists got together and collaborated what would they make with your input?
Transforming their work into something of your own is how you flatter your mentors. Add something to their work that only you can do! T.S. Eliot says it this way, “Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole feeling of which is unique, utterly different from that which it was torn”
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Sygge "Girl Who Plays Basketball" |
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Austin Kleon the author of “Steal Like an Artist '' says every new idea is just a mashup or a remix of one or more previous ideas. Strangely, the more influences you add to your mix the more “unique and original” you and your art will appear. Follow your curiosity and mash-up your interests with your research. Notice your passions, your hobbies, your obsessions, and let them talk to your work. Your hobbies are things you do just for yourself. You don’t do them to make money or get famous, you do them because they make you happy. It is something that gives without taking; regenerative, and it will feed your work.
Copying many is research. When you feel like your romance with one artist is complete, move on to another artist and add them to your circle, too. All creative work builds on what came before.
Originality is simply creating something that did not exist before. You can develop your own unique and original voice by creating the artwork you would like to see and own. Create a world on your paper or canvas that you desire to enter even if you start with the work of another.
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My most recent portrait based on Bernie Fuch's painting "Granddaughter Esme"
Watercolor on Arches 22" x 15"
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Doing good work is incredibly hard and creating great art is a lifetime endeavor. There will always be someone more talented and more accomplished than you and those are the people you want to invite into your circle where they can mentor you in person or from a distance. Be nourished by the challenge of stretching yourself towards what you love and what feeds your creative muse. That is the process of artistic discovery.
If you ever find that you are the most talented person in the room, it’s time to mentor others and also to move into a bigger room.
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This month I am celebrating one year of monthly newsletters! It has been a challenging stretch for me to crystalize my thoughts on different topics so they are meaningful to me and to you. I hope that my musings have been uplifting to you and your artistic endeavors. Let me know which essays and events resonated with you as the feedback helps to guide my future explorations.
Please reach out if you are considering inviting me into your artist circle to mentor your growth. I welcome the conversation. I am excited to share everything I’ve learned with you. As your teacher, I can walk beside you and support you in the exploration of your authentic/true artistic voice.
With Light and Delight,
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P.S. If you didn't get the chance to download your free gift from me: Here is my "Inner Artist Inspiration Package" - a series of illustrated quotes in watercolor based on flower photos taken by family and friends.
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Quote:
Everything that needs to be said has already been said.
But since no one was listening, everything must be said again
- Andre Gide
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Tuesday, April 5th - early morning until late evening
Initiated in New Mexico in 1938, the Transcendental Painting Group set out to explore spiritually heightened abstraction, employing free-wheeling symbols and imagery drawn from the collective unconscious. Under the guidance of Raymond Jonson and Emil Bisttram, artists Agnes Pelton, Lawren Harris, Florence Miller Pierce, Horace Pierce, Robert Gribbroek, William Lumpkins, Dane Rudhyar, Stuart Walker, and Ed Garman sought, per their manifesto, “to carry painting beyond the appearance of the physical world, through new concepts of space, color, light, and design to imaginative realms that are idealistic and spiritual.”
If you are interested in joining me for a visit to this exhibit at Baker Art Museum in Naples, FL on Tuesday, April 5, 2022, for a lecture, tour, and lunch, please let me know. We can have some fun dining out and sharing our thoughts on the drive over and back.
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Thursday Adult Group Classes: |
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This is not a drawing class!
Art is a divine expression of the human creative force.
Every month we will "play" with a canvas or paper to create a work of art using different combinations of tools, materials, and techniques. Every class we will make something new. Come prepared to make exuberant art.
No experience necessary, just a willingness to be bold, free, and open-minded.
Here is a place to problem-solve, be bold, take chances and make mistakes with limited consequences. At the end of the night, you will have spent a few hours in the company of friends known and new, you will have a beautiful (or not so beautiful..yet) decorated piece of paper or a canvas and a sense of well-being that comes from engaging your creativity.
Sign up by the Tuesday before class so I can be sure to have enough materials for everyone.
$80 per person includes all materials, a light snack, and a non-alcoholic drink.
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Private Lessons and Events |
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Master Classes for High School Students |
Private, highly personalized classes in mastery for artistically-minded US & international students virtually on Zoom or in person at my home.
If you have a student who is a visual thinker, willing to push the boundaries of their own work, and serious about improving their options for college, I want to hear from you! Schedule a time to discuss how I can collaborate with you to build a portfolio that will give your student the greatest chance for success.
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Art Workshops, Critiques & Presentations |
Invite me to present or lead a workshop for your school, club, or guild.
I can customize a program for your event or present my skills programs on composition, color theory, drawing faces, coordinating light/shadow or understanding the cues for depth. I am available for judging, confidence-building critiques and recorded tutorials.
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Improve Your Artist Statement |
If you would like to delve more deeply into your own inner questions and clarify your thoughts as you create an artist statement for your website, a gallery show, a sponsor, or another project, please reach out, and let’s talk. I have helped many students write compelling statements for AP Art, college applications, and competitions.
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Sketchbook Prompt:
Trace a drawing done by a great master. Try to match the mark-making, the variety, and the weight of their lines. Then copy it a second time on your own. Attempt to recreate the "feeling and mood" of the original. Reflect on the experience and what the artist might have been thinking.
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Gold Coast Watercolor Society Workshop
Flowers and Faces with Janet Rogers
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This month I was able to attend a three-day workshop offered by the Gold Coast Watercolor Society and taught by Janet Rogers.
Joined by 20 other watercolorists I learned how to create free-flowing flowers and faces in the style of Charles Reid. Janet's paintings were loose, watery, and inspiring. Just what I need to add a little more joy to my work.
She gave us a limited palette to work with - two triads of color to mix all our colors from and I got some gorgeous results. This portrait of my son and his girlfriend on the right is not exactly as she taught us, but I am really pleased with how it came out.
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Susan Convery "Daniel & Nicole"
Watercolor on Arches, 15" x 22" NFS
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I believe that the key to the future is in the remnants of the past. That you have to master the idioms of your own time before you can have any identity in the present tense. Your past begins the day you were born and to disregard it is cheating yourself of who you really are. - Bob Dylan |
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We visited this show for our art adventure last month. I had no idea that Bob Dylan was also a visual artist! He brings the same power to his visual art as he does to his written and musical work. It was wonderful to follow his growth as an artist from hesitant first steps to the graceful interplay of image, color, light, and emotion in his recent work above. One of the things I appreciated was how he would revisit the same scenes several times over the years as he grew in his ability to handle the problems posed by the work; the choice of color, the reflection of light, the interplay of value for mood and setting.
For each of his most famous songs, Dylan created a handwritten version of the lyrics along with a pencil illustration capturing the mood of the piece. It was wonderful to see how his images illuminated the meaning of the song and took you deeper into his inspiration for it.
This is an incredible body of work. A recurring theme for Dylan is roadside sites, the ones most of us pass without noticing, the motels, bars, gas stations, railroads, trucks, and neon signs. He did a beautiful series last year during quarantine painting scenes from favorite movies that perfectly captured the sense of time and place in these locales. It was a fascinating exploration. I highly recommend it. We finished up with lunch at a little outdoor cafe called the Aguacate Sanctuary of Love Vegan Cafe. It featured smoothies, salads, and all sorts of yummy goodness in a very funky setting. A perfect outing!
Retrospectrum is the most expansive and in-depth exhibition of Bob Dylan's artwork ever staged in the United States. Spanning six decades, Retrospectrum features over 180 paintings, drawings, ironwork, and ephemera, showcasing the development and range of Dylan's visual practice, in tandem with that of his musical and literary canon. The show ends April 17, 2022 so hurry down while you still can.
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Please contact me if you are interested in adding any of these paintings to your collection.
I will deliver if you live within a 2-hour drive and if you live further away, I will give you a price for shipping.
Venmo, CashApp, PayPal and Zelle are welcomed.
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Title: SunGlow
Media: Oil on Canvas
Size: 20" x 20"
Price: $1200.00
Frame: Painted Gallery wrap canvas
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Title: Bluefish
Media: Mixed Media
Size: 20" x 20" unframed, 29"x 29" framed
Price:$600
Frame: Gold frame with 3" Mat
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Title: Heaven Scent
Media: Mixed Media
Size: 22" x 15" unframed, 29" x 22" framed
Price:$450
Frame: Gold frame with 3" mat
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Title: Jellyfish
Media: Mixed Media
Size: 30" x 22" unframed, 37" x 29" framed
Price: $750
Frame: Gold frame with 3" white mat
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Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
Many of you know that I love gardening and science. This book was recommended to me for the beauty of its prose as well as its ability to open your eyes to the miracle of nature around you. This book reminds me of "Overstory" because the main character in every story is a plant. I loved this book and bought copies for everyone in my family.
As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these lenses of knowledge together to show that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. Only when we can hear the languages of other beings are we capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learning to give our own gifts in return.
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Want to see past issues of my newsletters? Visit this link on my website. |
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