Friday, January 3, 2014

My Art Goals for 2014



Happy New Year to you.  I never really gave much thought to my art goals in prior years as it was always just to paint more.  This year, however, I've decided to turn over a new leaf and become more deliberate about what I think it will take to become a better artist.  That got me thinking about the artistic skills that are critical for becoming a good artist?  Those basics are drawing, design, value, color harmony, and brushwork. Therefore, in order to get better I need to focus on these areas to improve: squint, do black and white sketches before settling on a design, use a limited palette and vary the colors in the palette to see what combinations are interesting and harmonious, use more paint, once you put down a stroke let it be, never more that two strokes before wiping the brush and putting on more paint, etc. All those things I have been taught.  Now if I can just discipline myself to do that every time I set out to paint.


Okay, that covers the mechanics, but I also want to focus on subject matter.  I used to joke with a friend of mine that my still life paintings look like they were done by a different artist.  That is because I painted lots of them in order to learn about value, color, etc.  However, I became an artist to be able to paint landscapes so this year I want to put in as much time on the landscape as I did with still life. I read on Robert Genn's Painters Keys blog that you have to paint at least four times a week in order to get better, so I will focus on landscape at least four times a week. 

I also want to get more active in the art community by going to galleries, art exhibitions, and museums in the coming year and really study the paintings that the best artists are doing.  I am curious why some paintings draw you in and you spend time looking at the design, brushwork, lighting, etc? Whereas, you may just walk past another painting.   

Another area I would like to focus on is to increase my participation in more paint outs and exhibits.  It is not always easy to schedule time for all these things, but I think I can commit to at least three a year.  I've been participating in two a year for the last few years so one more shouldn't be too hard to accomplish.

If I can accomplish these goals I think it will take me to the next level of becoming a better artist.  You may be wondering why I decided to publish these  goals.  Frankly it is to make a public  commitment.  I figured if I shared them with you I might actually come closer to accomplishing them in the coming year.  So here is to a productive and busy year ahead. 

1 comment:

  1. Good for you getting out there and committing to your goals. I agree it makes it that much more tangible and motivating! As much as I love your still life bold color and great compositions (seriously), your landscapes with water are delightful! So multi-talented.

    An interesting idea I saw lately was to do a collage of your paintings, this artist is doing it once a month - wouldn't that be a great "marker" of your art, goals, pat on the back? She recommended picmonkey which is free. I've tried it and it's pretty easy and fun.

    Happy New Year, and Happy Painting.

    ReplyDelete