5 things you can do to improve your odds of making a great painting
The title of this newsletter has whiff of clickbait to it, I know. But I swear that my thesis is sound.
There are barriers between you and a great paintings. Some are character traits lurking just below the surface, waiting to mess up your art. My own flaw of not being detail-oriented is always rearing its ugly head, leaving some of my paintings with a vague sense of being incomplete. But the flip side can be true, too. A Type A painter might be creating paintings that feel too restrained because that person’s need to have a perfect outcome might result in marks that lack bravery or energy. Other barriers include using the right materials, not knowing enough basic techniques, a lack of understanding of color, or just not understanding what makes a great work of art.
Hint: This is a great work of art -
Toyin Ojih Odutola, Picnic on the grounds
When I am teaching a class I spend a lot of time thinking of ways to help painters go from point A. (a blank, intimidating, maddeningly empty canvas) to point B. (a great painting that fills them with joy and pride.) Sometimes I can see in real time what the barrier is and can find a way to help them find a path to a great painting that isn’t just me inserting myself into their creative process.
Other times I try to incorporate one of the following methods or tricks into the lesson on the front end, and when I do, it is usually a pretty successful class.
Do lots of do-overs.
Repetition can push painters into experimenting their way towards greater paintings. There is something in painting the 2nd or 3rd version of the same thing that makes you notice the details, leads you to experiment with a shadow or a line in a new way, or results in you taking a risk. I imagine it is along the same lines as an actor doing multiple takes of the same scene. You have no desire to be repetitive or duplicate anything so you reach into a different corner of yourself or play with a different element to make the 2nd or 3rd attempt fresh. We recently did a class inspired by Van Gogh’s paintings of the Roulin family and completed multiples of the same different palettes. Almost without exception, the second painting was better.
Monet used this do-over approach with his haystacks series as he played with light, color, perspective, scale, and background. The results are remarkable. Next time you sit down to paint, do the same object 3 different ways and see what happens.
Looking at the greats will make your artwork great.
We look at a lot of contemporary art and paintings from art history in my classes. Not only is a great painting the best possible example of what to do when approaching a canvas, it also can inspire any number of artistic choices. You might notice the way one color butts up against the other in a Rothko.
Mark Rothko, Orange and Tan
You might turn to Rose Wylie and consider playful scale in your painting.
Rose Wylie, Black Strap (Red Fly)
Everybody in my class who saw the Henry Taylor show at the Whitney obsessed on his endless, surprising choices, like his decision to make one eye half baby blue in this painting.
Next week my advanced class is going to look at details from their favorite paintings to inspire them to be more conscious of the small moments happening in their paintings as well.
Detail from Manet’s The Railway
In this Manet, somebody might find inspiration in the way he painted that finger holding open the pages of the book, or the ruffles on the wrist that are painted with such contrasting, bold marks, or even the heavy eyes of the sleeping puppy created by the perfectly arched black line.
Pay attention to your brushes. Brushes are ridiculously expensive. But they are also ridiculously important. (Full disclosure: I treat mine terribly.) Using a well-made brush or selecting the best possible brush to make the type of mark you want to make is key. I periodically do a brushwork class where the painter has to use whatever mystery brush is wrapped up on their easel. Then they have to switch to another type. Over and over until they find a brush that fits their painting style. A video I made around Amy Sillman and brushwork and mark making is here.
The wrong brush might be causing you to create erratic edges that you don’t want. You might be losing energy in the large parts of your canvas because your brush is too small and making your marks too labored. Do you want to paint like Brice Marden? Then you might need a beautiful long round brush that you can float and dart around your canvas. Not a stocky, bulky one.
Brice Marden, Cold Mountain
Implement a mandatory 48-hour waiting period before you are allowed to toss out a painting or paint over it. I have killed so many good paintings by not being patient enough to spend time really looking what I have done. Like this painting I was working on this summer.
I look at this stage of that painting now and think it was a very solid start to a painting. The sky needs work, but there was something so wonderfully ominous in the flying owl silhouettes and their composition and scale. There is something really free in the painting of the leopard and the shadows of the fruit and glass.
But I didn’t wait and now it looks like this. I should have had that waiting period.
Paint whatever the hell you feel like painting. I went to art school at the University of Minnesota at a time when 97.9% of the faculty were white male Abstract Expressionists with incredibly strong feelings about what we should paint and how we should paint it. One particular professor told us girls in the class that we should fight what he appeared to think was an innate urge we shared, connected no doubt to our ovaries, to paint cats if we wanted to be taken seriously.
Surf & turf, Belgian Cats on the Northern Coast of Belgium, Karen Kilimnik
He really should have waited a few years for the amazing series of cats that Karen Kilmnik did. And did he forget about Picasso?
Pablo Picasso, Cat Catching a Bird
The student who did the painting below is really an amazing painter. Everything she paints comes from a totally original place. I think her super power is partially because she paints whatever she felt the urge to paint. There was no angst about what an appropriate object would be or a need to stick directly to the rules of that week’s lesson. This painting she did of Kim Kardashian sticking out her tongue is borderline genius. It was a comment on fame and our society and it shows a real experimentation with line and color. Paint whatever you want. Paint your sneakers, a favorite car, the view out your window. You can even paint your cat. The passion for that object will translate into energy on the canvas.
I mean, Manet decided to paint this giant hunk of prosciutto and churned out a masterpiece.
The Ham, Edouard Manet
The first week of The Painting School’s new location at 65 Woodhull Street in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, was awesome! Great work was made and I met some awesome neighbors as they stopped in as they passed by to check it out.
It is looking good in there, thanks to Rob’s 18-hour days, but there is still more to do!
A few fun things coming up on the calendar:
Live Model Paint & Sip - Our first paint and sip will be with a live model! Feb. 2nd, 7-9 (I’ll be dropping a lot more paint & sips and date nights on the calendar this weekend!)
Art History Trivia Night with Gisela Gueiros. Imagine an art history class merged with a pub trivia night and you have this super fun trivia night on Tuesday, Feb. 27th with the super charming, super smart Gisela at the microphone.
Bring a Baby Hang Out - A Tuesday morning hang out for anybody who is doing the hard, often lonely, thing of taking care of a baby. Bring the baby, make some art. Or just sit there. Starting Feb. 6th.
Adult Daytime 4-week Learn to Paint Series - The start-from-scratch basics class for anybody who has always wanted to paint but has been trying to convince themselves they can’t do it.
Adult Color Theory Intensive Workshop for creative professionals to get even better with color - March 3rd
Our first flower workshop is almost sold out but I’m adding another flower workshop for March. Expect a date night, a way to have birthday parties there AND membership options to be shared shortly.
It is happening!
I hope you have a great week.
Happy Painting!
xoxo
Sara
Insta: @thepaintingschool