So it looks like this painting is going to be another multiple session piece. I really like the still life setup so I’m willing to put in the time to do it right. As long as everyone is ok with seeing nothing but a still life painting in progress on my website for a while then I guess it’s ok. Honestly even if you don’t want to see the in progress work, I’m going to show it anyway.
I was reading comments on James Gurney’s website the other day and one of the commenters said that he didn’t like seeing “in progress” photos of artwork. I can’t understand why? I wonder if most people think there is some kind of magical thing that happens in an artists studio and showing the a painting in progress will kill the illusion.
I wonder if anyone wouldn’t purchase a painting just because it started out looking like crap? Personally, I enjoy watching artists work unfold. There are tons of video on youtube where the paintings start out looking really rough and odd, but then by the end the works are quite beautiful. I especially like the point in the painting where it all comes together, and if your not watching closely you will miss it. Check out this video of David Kassan doing a portrait.
Maybe in today’s world everything is moving too fast. There is too much information, too many things to do, too much to watch and see, and we don’t have enough time to do it all. We all hate loading bars I guess. I want to see the full three hour video of David painting this portrait, don’t speed it up, I want to see how time consuming it is, how much hard work is put into a great piece of art. I can’t help but respect the artist more after see three hours of a painting in progress. By the way this is a short painting by David Kassan, I think most of his works take tons of hours to complete.
This reminds me of a book I read, Mastery by George Leonard. In it he describes how our society is focused so much on the goal and the end of the journey that we forget all about the path and the hard work to get there. TV commercials show the success at the end of long day or life and the rewards being savored. But the hard work, the hours, days and years that it took to get there is barely mentioned. Mastery is all about the journey, the understanding that it’s a long road, and you never truly master anything.
This is the a picture of the still life with the exact crop that I want, although the angle is a bit off. I may have to start over again as the drawing is not close enough to where I want it.
