I am a recent entrant into the art world.  I never knew it was so competitive.  Looking from the outside in, it seemed to be a place where everybody was kind, supportive and encouraging.  While a vast majority are beautiful people, there are some who just don’t cut it!  So, how do you keep the creative juices flowing and keep the naysayers at bay?

I have dealt with it from the get-go! “Realism is not art; you might as well take photographs!”  “If you want to be a serious artist, you need to just do one thing.”  “You don’t have a niche.”  “Do you have an education in the arts?”  “Who did you learn from”? “Your technique is bad”. “Your art does not communicate”.  And, worst of all – “your art is amateur”.

There are plenty of accounts of really famous people being criticized for the art they created.  As mentioned in my earlier blogs, it seemed to me that anything of value today was severely critiqued, and sometimes quite brutally!  Pablo Picasso was criticized for his cubist paintings, and Monet for his impressionism. During his lifetime, Van Gogh almost did not sell any paintings as they were considered amateur.  Pollock was called "Jack the Dripper", and Rothko was dubbed a house painter! 

So, how do you handle a naysayer?

I really do not know how the artists mentioned above handled the criticisms, and I am no expert at handling them either, but here is what I do.  I create because I love the process of creating something from almost nothing.  I love the transformation of a blank canvas to a colorific piece right in front of my eyes.  I love the marks of brushstrokes, palette knives and other instruments like brush handles and forks that are guided by my intuition on the canvas.  I made those marks, and I own them.  There are spaces I leave where no paint needs to be, and that’s my decision.  I am in love with realistic paintings because I know how hard they truly are to paint.  I enjoy abstracts because they give me the freedom to paint what I think and leave their interpretation open to others.  I love the play of pigments and their subtle interactions on the canvas.  I love the stories told when colors lie next to each other. 

The way I handle the naysayers is I own what I do.

My vision is not theirs, and that’s fine with me!

As always, be curious and create!

Hyacinth

https://www.hyacinthpaulart.com/