Luc, Le Cycliste, fini
Recently I have been thinking about how to become a better artist and am trying the approach of a music student training to become a good musician. The difference is, when a musician practises a piece the performance vanishes instantly when it is over, but a visual artist's practise pieces linger in his or her studio, piling up, evidence of a seemingly very wasteful activity. Now I have taken a page from Kevin Macpherson's book and am discarding old, unsold, unsuccessful (practise) paintings. Macpherson actually burns his in an annual bonfire in his New Mexico back yard.
Like a musician, an artist needs to practise, practise, practise. I am practising painting by attending, almost daily, open studio sessions in this area where I can work from a live model, cheaply. Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers resonated with me, specifically his theory that 10,000 hours of work, or practise, in any field of endeavor is required in order to acheive mastery in it.
The reason I bring this up now is that I suspect Luc, Le Cycliste, is destined for the dustbin, or bonfire, several years hence. But, you know what? I learned something from doing this painting.
Comments