It is always discouraging for "Me" as an artist when patrons do not seem to see the good qualities "I" see... or feel for a piece of work I feel pleased with. It is... I suppose like having your child undervalued when you know the potential and the good spirit of that child.
This week I had the good fortune to see such a plein air painting I had valued(which I had painted back in 1998, while living in Nova Scotia) be chosen along with three others by an art dealer... whose tastes and knowledge of painting I admire and trust. He immediately recognized the very same qualities in the work that I had tried to create... and had been satisfied with in the final work.He was excited by it... and was more than pleased to buy it.
That two hour plein air sketch had been exhibited in a couple of good galleries in Nova Scotia and in Ontario... but had failed to interest, or catch the eye of a prospective buyer.The argument... complaint...or reason for its lack of appeal was the "grey quality of the day" it depicted. I never could quite buy those reasons... simply because it really did depict the day as I had experienced it... and the very barren and bleak landscape that is found around Stonehurst North. I had "nailed it"... in my own mind.
"I" am not writing this post to laud the quality of the art.. or "ME" the artist. "I" write only to encourage any other artists who might read this blog NOT to be discouraged from expressing themselves ... or to judge a work as a failure... simply because it doesn't sell quickly... or satisfy the objectives of the "critics". This applies as well to the rejection we ALL have received in entering juried shows,in approaching galleries to represent you and the like. Such rejection can being paralyzing to your creative energies and self-confidence.Always remember the reason that "You" (should have) created the work in the first place- was to please your Self and to gain new knowledge!
In looking at this plein air panel... now over ten years passed... it still gives "Me" personal pleasure and satisfaction to see the spontaneous,expressive, confident brushwork... and the good solid range of values that allow this work to possess and exude the "grey quality of that (18th) day" of January in 1998. It gives "Me" personal pleasure if for no other reason... that my impression of that lovely winter day... now lost forever in Time to everyone else... can still be enjoyed by my dealer friend... and by "Me" in my memory. That's the real value for any piece of art...by anyone.
The lesson I think is clear:
"Be true unto thy Self"! The joy and the reward is in act of painting!
Good painting to All!
