Reflections on Painting - 1

Lesson 1: reward the 'natural artistic eye'.

Lesson 1: On the natural artistic eye

If problem-solving depends on the way one sees and thinks of the world, then my process involves a lot of meandering. I consider myself a slow/distracted thinker. This observation might also be evident in my writing.

I was insecure about this. So, when I was studying, I was eager to find a community with like-minded people. I wasn’t willing to belong to just any community, but rather to one that allowed people to come as they were. I thought that would help hone my senses.  

I wanted to have a community experience and feel satisfied with what I brought to the table.

Unfortunately for me, communities don’t do that. At best, they provide scaffolding for existing/shared ideas.

I think what I’m saying is that as ‘we’, there is truly little room for authenticity.

Why does this suck?

When I started painting, I learnt to get rid of any formal training so that I could see things the way I naturally do. It was a one-person job, not a community job.

Part of the training enforced fear of failure. I learnt the opposite - mistakes are natural and it might help to get familiar with them.

The insecurity still remains. But, I am slowly realizing that if I want any authenticity in my work, I might have to sometimes allow what I’m most insecure of.