David Rose
By David Malcolm Rose
“Do you teach art?” It’s a common question I’ve been asked.
“Teach art? Can’t be done,” is my standard reply. “But if there’s an artist within you, I might be able to help you look.”
Here are a few things – things that I have learned over the years that may possibly help aspiring artists. Anything worth doing is worth doing badly. To produce good art, one must first make a lot of bad art. There is no other way, no shortcuts. Having made a lot of bad art, I know of what I speak. Van Gogh didn’t write War and Peace the first time he sat down at the piano.
“Genius can write on the back of an old envelope, but mere talent requires the finest stationery available.” —Dorothy Parker. I make no claims to genius, but my easel is a piece of plywood leaned up against the wall with a section of 2×2 nailed across it to hold the canvas. My palette is a dollar store microwave plate, and my brushes stick up out of a coffee can. Make art. Use Crayons and printer paper if you’ve nothing else, but make art.
That first humanoid who picked a charred stick out of the fire and drew on the cave wall is the only original artist the world has ever known. Everybody else is just doing variations on the theme. All artists borrow; great artists borrow from the best.
There was a time when young artists would set up their easels in a museum and make a copy of a master’s work. I’m sure such a thing would be frowned on today, but people can still learn technique by taking classes or watching YouTube videos on their phone. However you do it, never lose sight of the fact that technique is just the vehicle – the spark has to come from within.
David Rose, of Hot Springs, is an author and artist.
{More of David’s musings can be found at thespringsmagazine.com/category/arts/david-rose/.}
