Part 3

We discuss a number of ideas about, and approaches to personal process in this Part. We also make some suggestions for good working behaviors and professionalism in your artistic life.

Table of Contents

The Process of Abstraction

In this section we suggest an approach to painting that may help you understand and develop a personal process and style, or aspects thereof, based on abstraction.

Abstraction is the process of simplifying or selecting from the information available in a reference source. Its Latin root meaning is to draw away or draw from.

Abstraction begins with choosing a reference source or image. This very act of choice results in a specific selection from an infinite range of possible choices of reference material.

Consider the photographer. He points his camera in a specific direction. The number of possible directions is infinite. One would argue perhaps, that most would make no sense. But he chooses one. In the resulting single literal image, the visual information or detail selected is a tiny fraction of what was available for him to draw from. Thus, any literal image chosen as a reference is already an abstraction of sorts.

The artist, working from such an image, is confronted with a problem. How much detail or information does he represent in his painting? On one hand, a photorealist will try and capture as much detail as he is technically capable of. From this extreme, there is a continuous spectrum of interpretations, each representing a personal choice of degree and kind of abstraction. Each such choice is a reduction of the information available in the reference image. On the other end of the spectrum, only the artist can recognize the presence of aspects of his reference source.

In painting a tree, does the artist try and capture the form, shading and colour of every leaf? Will one or two brush strokes suffice to represent a leaf, a cluster of leaves, an entire branch, or possibly even the entire tree? He may not know the answer to this initially, but by examining how others have represented trees, by closely observing trees and experimenting until he is satisfied, he can discover exactly the right amount and kind of information that he must use to represent a tree.

In summary, abstraction is the process of deciding exactly what aspect of a reference source an artist will represent in his image and in what manner it will be represented.

Different Approaches to Abstraction

There are several ways one can approach the problem of learning their personal degree of abstraction for creating the images they desire.

One way is by subtraction. The artist starts with all information and gradually removes elements of detail until he find the level of detail that is right for him. He might remove the detail of individual bricks in a wall by using larger masses of shape and colour, or non-representational textural marks to suggest individual bricks. He might decide to remove trees, people and other larger elements to allow the focus to shift to a select few.

This degree and form of abstraction changes and evolves as the artist works through a series of images, each hopefully more satisfying than the previous. The artist is learning what information, what elements he needs to retain and what he can eliminate without detracting from and perhaps even improving the appeal of the work in progress.

Another approach is by construction. The artist selects basic elements from a master reference source and builds on them. Using the curve of a beach and a mass of rocks from his master reference, he begins to add elements into the scene either from his master reference or other references. He moves trees, adds foreground brushes or flowers, adds people, removes buildings, and modifies colour and light until he gets a satisfying image. All its elements may have literal precursors although not in the master reference from which he began. Some elements may be totally imaginary.

The resulting scene may evoke the response in a viewer “I’ve been there; I just can’t quite place it.” But, it has become an artificial or imaginary landscape.

A third approach is to identify a particular element in a reference source or a particular characteristic and expand on it. The artist might be attracted to the sinuous lines and forms made by the crests of sand dunes in the desert. Ignoring the colours of sand and sky and the horizon to horizon panorama, he might isolate the shape formed by two intersecting dunes as his whole image and render it in shades of pink and green. The observer may not see any connection to a desert scene while it was in fact his primary inspiration and reference.

Finally, the artist may use any combination of these approaches leading to synthetic images with one or more referential precursors.

If we wish to use the chess metaphor of Part 1, the reference image becomes our teammate. In this case, the reference guides our choice, positioning and expressive form of the elements we add or modify, the brush marks we make. It also becomes the teammate of the opponent, our unconscious self. We not only have to consider our response to or assessment of what we have just painted but we must constantly check with the reference to assess the veracity of that we seek to achieve. The reference guides both our conscious implementation decisions and the gestalt evaluation of their result.

Your Personal Vocabulary and Style Guide

Whether you are conscious of the process or not, you are learning to paint abstractly. You are developing a personal visual vocabulary of content categories (e.g. seascapes), shapes (e.g. rocks and trees, rectangular building elements), colours (you may have a bias to blue or to warm light effects), textures, patterns, value relationships, design choices (e.g. strong diagonal lines) and other aspects that go into creating images.

As you express these choices on a surface, the result is a personal style. Expect this style to be a living thing that evolves as you become more experienced and your tastes, interests and content preferences change.

The Process of Non-objective Painting

Whereas abstraction works from external literal imagery, this process is primarily internally motivated. This, we believe, is a much more difficult process, but ultimately more rewarding. At least with abstraction, we have an external starting reference and can develop a process for adding to and subtracting from this reference to reach a goal. With the nonobjective approach, we depend entirely on the muse within for direction.

Two Approaches to Non-objective Painting

The first approach is a constructive one. We work from internal imagery and conceptual ideas. The images we create are rich in personal symbolism and meaning. We assemble, often in apparently random ways, the elements seen by our mind’s eye, our imagination. We may begin with a plan or with preparatory drawings or sketches. We can certainly include elements with an external reference, but their choice and disposition is guided purely by our internal creative sense.

As in the case of abstraction, we will find that we have a personal vocabulary. Even without conscious choice we see we favour certain shapes, line, textures, colours, and compositional structures. We can develop an entire personal symbolism which we use to motivate our work. Kandinsky developed an elaborate theory of art and his painting was an expression of it.

When we, the artist, are the viewer, we should have a good idea of what our work is expressing. In most cases, other viewers will have little of no clue to any meaning associated with its content. Be prepared to help them with descriptive titles or commentary.

The second approach is that adopted by the abstract expressionist painters of the mid-twentieth century. In this case, we begin to make marks, colour choices and compositional arrangements without premeditation. Sometimes, the goal is to be totally void of conscious intent on the premise that deep psychological reservoirs in the unconscious can be tapped and brought to conscious expression.

Non-objective painting is very much a case of playing the game as described in Part 1. It is a solitary game in which both players are oneself.

Working in Series

There are several reasons for working in a series. Rarely can a good idea be fully captured or explored in a single work. Many different concepts, approaches, viewpoints, techniques and alternatives can be fruitfully and extensively explored before a subject is exhausted. Be aware that a series may go on for your lifetime.

Art is an extremely complex system given the number of elements that go into a work. The elements of design in themselves provide a staggering array of choices. A common approach taken by scientists working with complex systems is to fix all the parameters but one. This one is changed through a series of experiments (consider an experiment as an individual work of art) searching for the value of it that gives the best result. This parameter is then fixed with the characteristic that gives the best result and another element is varied. This kind of disciple can work equally well for the artist. You learn nothing if you change everything at once.

When you are working from a list of different design or style ideas, introduce change slowly, one point or element at a time. When one is integrated into your work, then introduce another.

This is a process requiring time, dedication, patience and material. The rate of development of personal style will be proportional to the effort invested.

Working Techniques

The following is a collection of techniques that may help you as an artist, resolve issues associated with your work.

  1. Put a strict limit on the time you will spend on a work in a particular session. Often we overwork a piece because we don’t take the time to step back and assess what we have done, giving careful consideration to what we should do next.

  2. Feedback is the term used for assessing the result of an action and using the assessment to modify the next repetition of the action. Make a point of stopping frequently and evaluating your work. Compare several works done in succession and in series. When you see the same “problem” or undesirable characteristic appearing again and again, make a deliberate act to change your approach. From a positive point of view, you may find elements that excite you that you will want to expand on or repeat in successive works.

  3. Some artists start with careful preparation including value and colour sketches, geometrical designs and carefully planned arrangements of elements. Others simply start with random marks or shapes applied to the surface. In either case one must engage at some point - enter the game.

    Even if the beginning of a work is somewhat perfunctory or automatic, there is a point when our total attention becomes necessary if the outcome is to be a good one. At this point, the artist makes a move by adding a design element such as a shape, a line or a colour. The work then responds with a visual statement that says this move was an improvement to or detraction from the overall effect. The artist must then respond with a change or addition they feel will enhance the image after this change. This dialogue continues with the following characteristic: in the end game, that is when the work is almost finished, the time between moves increases, more thought and contemplation go into each successive move and the moves become smaller in their effect and nature.

    Three outcomes are possible. One is like a win when the artist is satisfied with the work. One is like a loss when the artist is unsatisfied to the extent he will destroy it. The third is like a draw where the artist recognizes there remain problems or issues unresolved but they can be tolerated and the image is kept, perhaps with the intention of revisiting it sometime later.

  4. A useful technique to evaluate a composition either of a conceptual idea, a work in progress or a finished work, is to do a monochromatic value drawing of the work. Shading with a pencil or crosshatching are ways to achieve intermediate values. The work then is much easier to evaluate in the context of balance, rhythm and movement.

  5. In addition to simply painting, consider writing as a parallel activity. A diary or journal is a valuable way of keeping track of new ideas, experiences and discoveries associated with work in progress, and notes on how particular aspects of a work were created. Modern digital photography even allows us to keep a visual record as part of the written record in an electronic journal. Writing about your content is a wonderful way of clarifying it and ideas around it.

  6. Standardize your use of materials. It will simplify your working process if you are not constantly trying to adjust your content to different scales (we address the issue of scaling in Part 4). A small set of sizes is more desirable from a marketing perspective also. Standardize your use of tools and colours. Another way of saying this is keep the number of each used to the smallest subset possible. This again makes your painting process easier.

  7. It is important to work on figure and ground in an integrated fashion to aceive successful images. Iit doesn't mean you have to treat the entire surface equally. It could mean that adding say blue to the figure requires adding only a touch of blue to a single point in the ground. This is the game: you add blue to the figure. Your unconscious responds with a feeling that it's too dominant. There may be a choice of options such as reduce the strength of the blue or add a blue mark to the upper right of the image. The trick is, is the upper right the best place? Over time you will know instinctively. In the meantime, you may have to try several placements in a sequence of actions: [move to correct (white move) / move to evaluate (black move)].

  8. Another similarity between a work of art and a game like chess lies in the way it is conducted.  A player who focuses on what area of the chessboard is rapidly placed in a difficult position by a player who is thinking in terms of the entire board. Likewise, if an artist focuses on one area of a work, developing it extensively, it will cause major problems in the later integration of the image.

    9. The solution is to develop all areas of a work in lockstep. A preparatory under-drawing is a good way to get an acceptable distribution of elements in the right proportions. Colour and value sketches certainly provide the artist with a good sense of how these pieces will fit together.

    When actually working with a specific colour, textural element, shape, continue its use throughout the entire image space as appropriate If we think of figure/ground relationships where the figure is the image element we are currently working on,  develop aspects of the ground in step with the figure. Introduce appropriate colour areas, textural passages, shapes or lines to balance the current image element.

    This constant working back and forth between figure and ground, between dominating image elements and quiet spaces, will result in a more successful image with less work.

Career and Professionalism

As we become more serious about our artistic life and begin to have wider contact with the world in reference to it, there are things we can do to either help or hinder the activity. In this section we provide some thoughts on the subject.

Attitude and Behavior

  1. Know and respect yourself as artist and know your art as an authentic expression of yourself.
  2. Work towards making your art an authentic expression of yourself and your objectives.
  3. Set achievable goals, work towards them with concrete plans, review progress and repeat the cycle until you either hang up your brushes or take up residence in a pine box.
  4. Set high standards for yourself, consistent with your goals.
  5. In consideration of your clients, use materials that you know will last. In recent times, some artist's have used materials that they know have poor archival properties. Admittedly, art is a caveat emptor market, but it is good practice to show respect for clients by using good materials and workmanship. Ignoring this point ostensibly in the name of creative expression, is in our opinion, an expression of disdain for the art consumer.

Relations with Others

  1. Develop a good relationship with one or more galleries or agents. People will be more inclined to work for you if you are positive and constructive. Avoid nitpicking, nagging, whining and any behaviors that offend you when others exhibit them.
  2. Develop a good relationship with your clients. More art is sold to repeat customers, especially when they feel they have an easy or privileged relationship with you the artist. It doesn't cost you much to be nice but it costs you dearly to be nasty.
  3. Be fair and honest in your dealings with clients. Customers who go away with any feeling of discord, of being cheated or taken advantage of, won’t be back. As part of this, be consistent in your pricing. Nothing would offend a client more than to discover he paid twice what his neighbour paid.
  4. Be fair an honest in your dealings with galleries. Marketing is 90% of any business. Creative content is 10%. The same is true of art. A good gallery will handle your marketing, leaving you free to paint. The gallery in turn expects and deserves an exclusive arrangement. Don't sell out of the back of your car. Direct purchase inquiries to your gallery. You will both profit fairly.
  5. One of your most valuable assets or biggest hindrances is your public reputation. Gallery owners do talk amongst themselves, clients have friends, and grapes grow exceedingly thick in the vineyards of the arts community.

Working Habits

  1. Keep good business records. This includes all records necessary to satisfy any authorities who would have an interest in your business. A shoe box full of receipts as opposed to carefully filed and categorized material will cost you money if your accountant has to sort them out. Believe us, you do not want to go through a government tax audit.
  2. Keep a good inventory so you know where every piece of your work is at any time. Lost or forgotten work is lost income.
  3. Organize your studio. You will work more quickly and effectively than if you are always looking for something. You need open, uncluttered space to paint, especially if you work big.
  4. Standardize where possible. Standardize your techniques, your palette, your image size (this will save you money on framing). The inability to standardize your working parameters is not a sign of creativity but of lack of discipline, planning and organization, all characteristics of successful artists.
  5. Create a set of good working habits. Planning, consistency, time management and a regular schedule are just some activities that contribute to good working habits. Every artist has dry spells and good working habits help carry you through these.
  6. Seek the advice of those you recognize as your peers and particularly those you look up to.
  7. Take courses to fill in the recognized voids in your technique and training. While doing this, be aware of your own vision. A good teacher will help you move towards achieving a personal expression of your vision. A poor teacher will ignore or subvert it.

Marketing

  1. If you want to sell you have to market both your work and yourself. Waiting to be discovered is just that – waiting.

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