Sunday, January 4, 2009

More Pontification.....

i thought i'd talk a little more on the subject of painting today if thats ok
this is actually cut and pasted from a reply i made to a comment made by a good blogger friend BonnieLuria , a few posts back, and i thought it would make an interesting post as well,,, so here it is-------------

(snipped and pasted)
thanks so much Bonnie.
glad my "pontification" was for somebody other than me. i frequently preach to myself, God knows i need it!if nothing else my tombstone will read " mike's favorite expression when asked about his good or bad paintings was, ""it is what it is, and no more""

i dont care that much about the final product. its a byproduct of my real goal, the physical action of painting. the thought process involved, the eye-hand coordination action, the judgement sharpening, the time use and editing skills practice.these are the things that are important until we are "Old Masters"

trying to concentrate on turning out wonderful, sellable, masterpieces should be the last thing we should be thinking about. that kind of thinking only leads to performance anxiety or the opposite, thinking more highly of our work than it is worthy of.

making every piece so precious or being overly critical of it kills the creative process and desire. so paint some crappy subject as if it was a beautiful subject. paint every day no matter what it has to be, or how it looks when we're done. think of EVERY painting as a practice piece. i try to keep in my mind that i havent really been painting finished pieces. i want to think of everything i've done up till now as practice for when i really start painting finished pieces. Man... you wait. when i start doing "real" finished pieces sometime in the future, they are going to be AWESOME. LOL
until then i'll just keep practicing and if they sell, thats a byproduct too!
i hope this kind of thinking will make us all better painters one day.

then i can say i knew you when.....LOL.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mike- this is all excellent advice, sound, practical and true.
Thanks for bringing it out, and for the link.

I've linked back to you on my new posting too.

Best to you,
Bonnie

mike rooney studios said...

bonnie
you're welcome and thanks for the link.
this IS going to be your breakout year. now go paint a small one today. tonite you'll be glad you did.
your a fantastic painter and i look forward to seeing em everytime i log on.

Sheila Vaughan said...

Mike - I agree absolutely with you. It is concentration on the process, each and every time, that will make us anything like decent painters. Everything you say there makes sense. I like to think of myself as a "journeyman painter" learning the craft, the tools, and so on. (this is not to say that I do not like your output because actually I like it very much).

mike rooney studios said...

sheila
went to your site and love those foggy snowy scenes youre doing.
ive noticed that alot of people that take my workshops are trying too hard. instead of letting go and just painting, they are too concerned with trying to make it a masterpiece. nobody can keep the proper frame of mind needed with that weighing them down.
thanks for coming by. i hope you keep coming by