Putting paintings away

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Paintings are stored in cardboard trays to protect them from dust and other damage

 

 

Putting paintings away is a chance to get rid of weak pictures.

You can think of your art career as a journey, in which every picture represents a chapter, or at least a paragraph. It's a biographical approach. In this approach every picture is a lesson, teaching something about the artist's journey. It makes the artist into a curator of his own museum. There is something conceited in that -though that, you might quip, is being an artist all over.

Or you can treat making art as a thing you learn to do, then when qualified, is a craft that you reproduce , and you'll have good days and bad. This approach is that of the picture-maker, and is in many ways akin to making furniture or jewelry. You curse the bad days and, having learnt what you can, discard any substandard work. This approach appealed to me when I set out painting pochaades. I liked it's down to earth qualities, and the idea of developing a recognisable format and becomeing expert at it.

I can see both perspectives but find the former can lead to one becomeing somewhat precious. You can only learn so much from weak pictures. And they take up space and bring you down.

 

But I can also see that making art is not just like following a recipe. It has to have subjective, exploratory elements or it simply isn't interesting. And to explore is, occasionally, surely, to mis-step...

Ergo, I chart a course betweeen the two positions.

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