Discipline

"Lake Oesa" original oil 6x6"

Lake Oesa (Yoho Provincial Park, British Columbia) is one of my favorite alpine lakes, it has wonderful swings and sways of strata flanking it that I strive to capture each time I paint it.

On the subject of discipline - it can be very tricky business for an artist, because there are so many areas where it's required.  I often feel that I am not disciplined enough, but this is mostly when I think that the time I spend actually painting is the only time I'm working. The rather long list of other jobs that are a part of this business somehow don't seem to count. It's like some part of me feels that all real artists do is paint, and get someone else to do all the other stuff for them. Any takers? :-)

But back to the point, the discipline I'm talking about is in perfecting my craft, and I do feel I don't spend  enough time doing this. This feeling has been rearing it's particular ugly head a lot lately as I have been watching more and more really competent, talented artists showing up on Facebook. (If you're afraid of FB, you should really consider jumping in, as a networking tool for artists it's great. Like blogging only different, with a much vaster reach). Some of these artists are doing exquisite work, so inspiring to observe (and deflating, but that's about the dangerous game of comparison,  a topic for another day). Today is about discipline, and these guys have me motivated to really raise my bar.

I'm cooking up a project which I will post once I have sorted out the details, but it is going to involve tremendous discipline, tons of exercise swinging a brush, and a chance for my collectors to acquire small original landscapes at a really good price for a very limited time. It will also include an invitation for artists to join in the challenge, if you dare.

In the meantime, please check out some of these fabulous artists' work, it's well worth the time spent:
Marc Hanson
Vince Giarrano
Suchitra Bhosle
Logan Hagege

On another note, Jean Sullivan sent me a link to this TED talk on genius by Elizabeth Gilbert. It's entertaining and interesting, about 20 minutes long.