Artists and attitude

T.C. Steele 1847-1926 The clam digger images from artrenewal.org

I like the color in this painting. It looks to me like a funny place to dig clams. Usually where there is big surf I expect to find rock, but clams come from mudflats. Maybe the clams in Ohio, where this artist was from, operate in a different manner. Crafty bivalves.

I am writing this post tonight as a response to some things that came up in the comments. I was asked how to weather tough critiques.

It is always hard keeping a reasonable attitude about your work. I have heard it said that when you look in the mirror you see what you think of yourself. When you look at your paintings you are not looking in a mirror. The painting is something you have made, its a thing. You are you, and not your painting. You need to keep those separate if you want to handle stiff critiques. If you can separate well enough to listen to a critique of your painting, without thinking it is a critique of you, that will help .

I think there are only a few times when a tough critique is called for.
One is when a student is being groomed to be a professional by a master in an atelier environment. Another is a student who is either "stuck" or wants to kick their painting up a level and asks for a bone shaking critique. The last instance is in the case of another pro, who asks for advice and who I know wants to hear what I think, and not some weak jive with the corners rounded off.

Artists who do angry or abusive critiques at amateurs in workshops or kids in art school are out of line in my opinion. There are times when you get a student who is so sleepy and unmotivated you want to wake em up. But I don't think that is kind. So I try to give them some tools to improve their painting, but I don't practice psychology, so I don't try to fix anybody. I am a downloader not a cheerleader. You bring the motivation and I will bring the information.

I have known a few painters who have been unable to keep a grip on what they are, sometimes they think, and will tell you they are GREAT, other times they are in despair about their art. While all of us have a little of that, these artists are either insufferable or pitiful by turns. Again, I don't know how to fix em. Sometimes these guys need to tear you down to make themselves feel OK. When they are teachers they can make students unhappy without making them any better.

On the other hand, there are students who are so full of themselves that you have to wonder why they come to a class. If you make any criticism of their art they are deeply offended. They are hypersensitive, its like their nervous system is on the outside. I used to lose a student every workshop to this syndrome. But I don't much anymore. I guess I have gotten better at reading the students and I watch carefully for the warning signs of this malaise. These students incidentally, seldom progress much, they may be OK for an amateur, but they often are comfortably locked into a level that they never transcend. I think that is because they lack a capacity for self examination. Painting is HARD, if you want to get better at it you must be self critical and willing to grow out of the easy habits you have developed. If you want to be an extraordinary painter , you will need to go to extraordinary lengths to get there.

Years ago I used to paint landscapes with some friends on a farm in Wisconsin. In the evening we would cook dinner and critique each others work. We developed a rule that you could not speak until after they had finished critiquing your painting. No more explaining or saying it isn't done, or "I was going to do that", or "that's really the way it looked". No defense allowed, you had to listen without speaking. It was a great system and I recommend it. When someone is critiquing your work remain silent unless they ask you a question. You might nod or say uh-huh as they pause and look at you, but let them do all the talking.

All this leads me to another point. I don't think you should ever make excuses for, or defend your art. If some one happens upon you painting, even if you are getting killed out there, don't say " I just started this one" or "the light changed" just let them make up their own mind, which they will do anyway. Most of the time people are easily impressed and their opinion is meaningless anyway. Unless of course they want to buy your art. that is the highest compliment they can pay you.