"Paintings With Personality"

This old farmhouse was a delight and a challenge to paint. It was all created in india ink and being a monotone, the values had to be right.

Some artists struggle with working on a regular basis. Instead of thinking about all the marvelous art they are going to create, they picture themselves in their work areas struggling with failing paintings, sculptures, or whatever their art form. As a result, they are always thinking they need to create more, but it never seems to happen. Most young women and men graduate from college, or high school and enter the workforce where they realize they know very little about their chosen field. They learn still more in OJT (on the job training) and never stop learning.

The same is true in art. Visual artists can attend college, art school, or look for more education through classes and workshops. All of that would be wasted time and money without OJT. On the job training means we are in our studios every day, whether we feel like it or not. Not everything we create will be a masterpiece and that doesn’t matter because we are practicing, learning, and growing. Artists, just like everyone else must work every day in order to be successful. Painters have to learn the elements and principles of design and create hundreds of paintings using those rules before they can branch out and become more experimental.

Technique alone won’t get you ahead as an artist, any more than a soft touch on a computer keyboard will make you a computer programmer. You have to learn more than technique to get into the more important art exhibits and win awards and only working daily will give you that proficiency. Artists who work when the opportunity arises or when there is nothing else to do cannot be on the same caliber as those who work every day.

Read the following list to learn how to organize your life for OJT:

1. Set goals – and figure out how to attain your goals.
2. Organize your life – have a bedtime, a time when you get up, and a daily studio time. Delegate the part of the day when you are most productive as your studio time.
3. Treat art like a business – let your family and friends know the hours when you will be working and what time you will be available. Your work hours are for emergencies only.
4. Visualize success – your amazing, finished work.
5. Get started right now – success won’t come immediately, in fact it will probably take years. So get to work right now and keep working.
6. Realize you will make mistakes – no one is perfect, and mistakes are good teachers.
7. Think of art making as a process – each piece you create will lead to another and another and another. Let go of your completed work and move on to the next, always learning new things.
8. Take care of your inner artist – visit galleries, listen to music, travel and explore.
9. Be active in your art community – look at and study other art work and learn from it. Talk about art with other artists.  

Having a good technique will let you progress only so far. The artist has to keep working, come up with different ideas, make changes and grow. If art is your life, and not a hobby, you will have to work hard and keep working, success will eventually come.

Do you have any other ideas on how to organize life? My biggest difficulty is sticking with the schedule. Any thoughts on how to be more successful at that? Have a great day, Judy

www.judyballance.com