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art, artist, artistic temperament, brush strokes, canvas, Christian artist, create, east sussex, empowered, g.k. chesterton, gallery north, illustration, inadequacy, inspiration, Mischa, oil painting, paint, painter, painting, portrait, vincent van gogh
It’s been a while since I last blogged, so I thought it was about time that I broke my blog-fast, so-to-speak and posted an update at the very least.
So I sit here at the end of a long days painting, trying to concentrate on writing while the kids watch a program on the blues on the t.v. in the background. It’s proving… interesting.
Well a few things have happened since I last wrote.
Firstly, I finally got a website nailed together and got it launched on the web. May God bless it and all who surf on it! You can find the new site here by the way: http://www.iangoldsmith-artist.com
Secondly, I’m exhibiting three paintings at a local Summer Open at a gallery near me on the south coast (Gallery North, Hailsham).
Thirdly… well because of the above website and show I haven’t got a lot of painting done. However the creative drought is over and I’m making progress at long last on a new project.
The problem with taking a break though, is coming back to work and being out of practice! I’m still struggling with colour mixing and painting construction. I’m making progress, but still struggling. In fact the initial stages of the current work were so frustrating that I must confess at least one brush got thrown down in tooth grinding, angry, blue word muttering frustration!
G.K. Chesterton wrote, “Artistic temperament is a disease that afflicts amateurs”. Now Chesterton was a great novelist and apologist (a kind of theologian), but he was no artist, or he’d know that artist ability and temperament usually go hand in hand.
Take the stellar Vincent van Gogh for instance. He was no amateur, but his temperament is legendary (as was his friend Gaugin’s). And it’s a comfort to know that even the great Vincent van Gogh must have faced similar brush throwing tantrums, frustrations and feelings of inadequacy, as he’s quoted as saying
As a painter I shall never signify anything of importance. I feel it absolutely.
What a heart wrenching critique of his work that is. Van Gogh was a class apart from many so called artists. He was misunderstood, passionate, devout (was a trainee pastor and missionary at the beginning of his career), original, troubled and skint! But when I read that quote, and even now as I think about it, it brings a lump to my throat and tears to my eyes.
If someone as innately gifted as Vincent could feel that inadequate and full of self doubt, we should all take heart and be encouraged. After all his work is among the most sort after on the planet. He is hailed as a visionary of his time and a monument to genius in the history of art! Even those who don’t like him, wouldn’t turn down one of his paintings.
So next time you’re feeling like giving up, read Vincent’s words and be encouraged. I love that troubled Dutchman and few paintings have entranced me the way his work has. The colours may be a little less vibrant today than when they were once fresh but if you get a chance to get nose to canvas with his work at the National Gallery in London, or any where else, then seize it!
Anyway, here is a section of my current work:
Sketch.
This a section of the face, more… detailed.
I’ll post more as it gets completed, but you might have to get it bit by bit.
Man… the realism you can achieve in those eyes is *amazing* the gloss and shine.. its so life like. I’m officially jealous.
Hey, thanks Kat. They did take most of the day
That is just incredible. I can’t wait to see the finished product.
Thanks Holly. I hope the rest lives up to expectations, yours and mine!
love your stuff. checked out your website too. if your interested, my friend is starting an art mag and has a website for artists. here is the address if you’re interested: http://valour-art.com/…
Thanks Cezanne. What a cool name by the way!
I’ll have another look at the site later. Registered, but awaiting email or something?
Anyway, thanks for the tip and the encouraging comments mate!
a special thanks, coming from an artist
you can send him a message via his FB page here if you want, maybe check your Spam folder? there have been technical difficulties before regarding those emails, should be sorted out now, but just in case: https://www.facebook.com/valour.art . have a lovely evening. cheers!
Sharp work as always. I largely rely on the underpainting method also.
Congratulations on the site; I’m looking through it on another tab as I’m writing this, and good going on the exhibit.
Van Gogh had a terribly awkward but incredibly fascinating life. His ability to see through and mentally canibalize the conflicting parts of it certainly helped him to render all of those local views in the amazingly creative way he did. Even his death, being so controversial, could have been a masterpiece had he lived to paint it.
I don’t believe for a minute that he took his own life. I truly believe that he accepted the blame for his own shooting so that the young man who did shoot him; one of his tormentors, could have a future. It was the kind of person van Gogh was actually known to be deep down; selfless, self-sacrificing. There is only a small nimber of such individuals in recorded history.
I can only imagine that his illustrating his own demise after such a life would have been like nothing ever created.
Thanks Allan and thanks for taking time out to check out the site and comment, especially when they’re nice comments mate!
Funny, I find myself increasingly fascinated by Vincent. Seem to keep hearing quotes of his or having people mention him in conversation. In fact I’m going to get hold of a copy of his letters as soon as I get a chance and spend some time getting to know him a little better.
Thanks again for the comments mate.
Ian.
Does an “amen” cover it?
Beautiful new work.
Yep. Thanks Beth
Hi, and thanks for stopping by ritaLOVEStoWRITE. I’m liking your ideas on art posted here. Well said. Cheers, Rita
Thanks Rita