Author: donald

Donald Kolberg graduated with a Fine Arts Degree from California State University, Los Angeles. He taught at the Los Angeles School of Art and co-founded Art Core, an organization dedicated to the open dialogue and display of the work of emerging artists. He continued his Master studies at Otis Art Institute. While at Otis Art Institute his teacher and main influence was internationally recognized painter Arnold Mesches. In Artcore he worked under the guidance of Lydia Takashita. With their teaching Donald learned the value of depth, texture and form in images and surface. He incorporated this into his concept of Life Forms, the portrayal of the human figure as a landscape of life and a celebration of form through Sculpture and Painting.

Success in an Artist’s Mind – Concepts to Live By

This past week I had the opportunity to speak at OHC, the Okefenokee Heritage Center. The Art Guild there is extremely active and incredibly receptive to the ideas that surround being an artist. One of the subjects I spoke about was developing a commitment to being an artist. I thought that an article I wrote recently might help to visualize the ideas I presented.

Success in an Artist’s Mind – Concepts to Live By

Once you’ve decided to throw caution to the wind and become the sculptor or painter you knew you could be there are a few things you should remember to become successful. And no, I am not going to rehash what you have probably read a dozen times concerning carrying a sketch pad, viewing art or any of the other tried and true top ten methods. I am going to explain the three most important concepts that you need to know and need to repeat over and over again.

First Concept

Do not beat yourself up over what you think you should be doing. This means that you will make mistakes, find yourself creating art that is not as good as something you saw in a book and generally feel that your work isn’t up to par with your peers. So what, it’s your work and you put the time into its creation. Even if you hate it you will have understood why it’s going in the trash. This leads us to the second important idea.

Second Concept

Throw things away. Yes it is true that not everything you do should be seen by the world. I know you want to keep it for reference for the next piece. But the truth is if it’s going to be part of a later painting you already have the idea in your mind. Besides, you didn’t like the first piece you did anyway.

Third Concept

Forgive yourself. This is the most important thing to remember. You need to do this because you will ignore concept number one and beat yourself up on a regular basis. Then once you forgive yourself for not remembering the first concept, forgive yourself for not adhering to the second concept. You and I both know you will never let go of that doodle you did in a coffee shop that you know is the beginning of your greatest piece of art.

So there you have it. Success in your mind is the most important component to success in the field of art. Remember this is straight talk from an artist who regularly beats himself up about how poorly his ideas have translated into his art. And, who has masterpieces created years ago in a high school drawing class hidden away, waiting to be used in that defining masterpiece. But who also knows that the joy of creating his art has become more important and satisfying each day of his life.

Donald Kolberg is a successful sculptor,painter and art coach and marketer. He maintains an open dialogue with fellow artists through his website and free international newsletter ART CORE which can be read at http://donaldkolberg.com/art_core.htm

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Success-in-an-Artists-Mind—Concepts-to-Live-By&id=2978109] Success in an Artist’s Mind – Concepts to Live By

Finding your voice

July 23, 2010

Dear Artist,

Recently, Judith Meeks of Toronto, ON, Canada, wrote, “I’ll soon be chairing a panel discussion called ‘Finding Your Voice.’ In your understanding, how do we translate our life experiences into our paintings and express who we really are? We may have good work habits, but how do we become clear about what we want to say? And how much can be done with a conscious plan?”

Thanks, Judith. This is one of those sticky head-scratchers that can cause the loss of sleep. First off, and contrary to what I’ve said before, plans can actually derail the voice-finding process. Further, you have to know what you mean by “voice.” Voice in style is different than voice in cause. Ideally, style develops over time. Cause is based on attitude and issue. With growth and development, causes change. A predetermined voice shackles creativity. To find your very own voice, I think you need to have a few things going for you:

You need to make stuff. Artists who put in regular working hours find their voice. Work itself generates clarity and direction. It’s like invention–one thing leads to another. One must only lurk for voice. Unfortunately, along the way, most drop the ball. Like the dilettante inventor of the soft drink “6-up,” they just don’t stick around long enough.

You need hunger. It can be the hunger for knowledge or for self-knowledge. It can be the desire to find an antidote for some injustice or human miscalculation. Perhaps you need some inexplicable, deep-seated compulsion to keep moving forward.

You need curiosity. Wondering how things will turn out is more powerful than having a pretty good idea beforehand. Wondering if you can do it gives you reason to try. Curiosity is the main juice of “ego-force” that keeps you keeping on.

You need joy. You need to feel joy in yourself and you need to feel you’re giving it to others. As Winston Churchill said, “You may do as you like, but you also have to like what you do.” A disliked job is soon abandoned.

I’m writing you from a remote anchorage off Grenville Channel on the West Coast of British Columbia. I’m thinking human nature is a mighty puzzle. Every time I go onto one of these islands looking for something to paint, I ask myself the old “What’s my voice?” question. One thing for sure, if I go ashore knowing what my voice is, it will be a weak squawk when I get to the spot.

Best regards,

Robert

PS: “Why this hunger to write–I always ask myself–if not the longing to discover what I believe? The pen divines my thoughts.” (David Conover in “One Man’s Island.”)

Esoterica: “What’s my voice?” has to be asked by each individual artist. Committee-free, the artist needs to develop her voice as if on an island. To be a voice is to be a different voice, set apart, unique. How to find it? Go to your island, put in long hours, fall in love with process–your voice will come out of your work

via Finding your voice.

Cameron Hampton

Whether you work in pastels or not, take the time to look at this website. You will be amazed at the quality of art being created by one of the most talented pastel artists around. And if you are a pastel artist do what you can to take one of her courses. It will be worth it

Cameron has two New Pastel Workshops available starting in August.

Monday, August 2 10:30-3pm Pastel (Artists Choice)

Monday, August 16 10:30-3pm Pastel (Stormy weather)

For more information & supplies list go here: PASTEL WORKSHOPS

www.artistcameronhampton.com
www.hamptonfineartgallery
706-454-2161

FineArtViews –

Handling Rejection

by Lori Woodward

Today’s Post is by Lori Woodward, Regular contributing writer for FineArtViews. She is also a contributing editor for American Artist’s Watercolor and Workshop magazines and she writes “The Artist’s Life” blog on American Artists’ Forum. Lori is a member of The Putney Painters, an invitational group that paints under the direction of Richard Schmid and Nancy Guzik. Find out how you can be a guest author.

For an artist, there’s no escaping the cold, hard fact of rejection. It’s part and parcel of the profession. Perseverance is a quality that we artists must develop in order to progress. Yes, it always feels bad, but the key is to not let rejection stop you from moving forward.

Recently, I was talking to a friend who mentioned that the author of Harry Potter books submitted her scripts 17 times before she found a publisher. The Beatles were repeatedly rejected by American record companies; and even my friend and mentor, Richard Schmid – often considered the greatest living master painter – had his book “Alla Prima” rejected by all of the art book publishers he submitted to (which, incidentally, turned out in his favor because he made a lot more money by publishing it himself).

So next time you receive a rejection – not getting into a show, having to go to a gallery and pick up your work because it’s not selling, receiving a hugely negative critique for an artwork that you thought was one of your best — keep in mind that everyone who ventures into the professional art world gets rejected from time to time.

We all start out as beginners

At the age of 35, after having worked for a computer company for ten years, I decided to get back into my art. Although I had a degree in fine art (where I learned nothing terribly useful), when I started taking watercolor classes in 1991, I was rusty and it took considerable effort to regain any expertise technically. One thing I could count on was that I was able to draw, but my ability with paint and mixing color – well, those areas needed much improvement.

Today, when I teach workshops, I show students paintings that I did back in 1991 and 92. The colors were muddy and the result unattractive. My reason for bringing them to workshops – is so the students can see how much I’ve improved and how really bad my paintings were at the time – which were the best watercolors I could do. But I did hang in there and today I have an instructional column in Watercolor Magazine. So, I guess you can say I persevered.

Pursue Excellence

One of the ways that I seek to improve my work is to compare my paintings to those of the masters, both past and present. I ask myself, what do their paintings display that mine don’t? At one point, I realized that most of the paintings I see in magazine articles use color in a way that I did not. They repeat color throughout their composition and their lights and darks contain a variety of colors that vibrate – while maintaining the correct value. Without getting into all of the artistic principles, I’ll just say that I was painting with only local color and once I made this change to a variety of bits of color in each value mass, my painting ability took a giant leap. It became clear to me the difference between average and advanced painting principles.

Now, I’m not saying that you all need to paint like me. I think you know me better than that, but what I am saying is that it’s our responsibility as artists to study the principles of art and practice applying them (for whatever style we paint in) so that we become masterful as well. If anyone thinks that making it in the art world is not a competitive feat, think again. It has been my experience that competition for recognition and sales is everywhere. How do I get past this fact? Pursue Excellence and develop my own story and style.

All of the above is to illustrate that rejection is going to come. When it does, sometimes it’s not because your work is bad, it’s just the nature of the profession – because judges have their own tastes. Other times, it’s because the judges can see evidence of the artist’s lack of understanding of the finer principles of good composition or handling of the medium or color. When it is the second case, the cure is to get that understanding and apply it to your work. Sometimes this takes a few years, and “miles of canvas” as they say. That’s why living masters get the big bucks. If it were easy, everyone could do it and it would be worth nothing.

But getting back to the rejection issue… early in your career, expect rejection, but keep improving and enter competitions and put your work out there for sale. You don’t need to be the most well known or even best artist in the country to make a great living with your work. Over the years, your work will naturally improve as you learn new principles and study with great mentors. The instances of rejection will come less often and there might even come a time when you forget that you ever experienced rejection.

In the next blog, I’ll explain about how I dealt with rejection in my art career. I think some of you might be surprised at how often I had to deal with the fact of rejection during my first 10 years of selling art.

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This article originally appeared at:

http://fineartviews.com/blog/20914/handling-rejection

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via FineArtViews –.

AWARDS

Three winners will be selected, each of whose artwork will be featured on the cover of American Artist, Watercolor, or Drawing magazine. The three winners will also receive scholarship awards valued at $1,395 applicable to registration fees and tuition for American Artist’s Weekend With the Masters 2011 program, as well as a $1,000 cash prize. (Scholarship award has no cash value.)

HOW ARTWORK WILL BE SELECTED

The editors of the magazines will select the winning entries. All subjects will be considered, whether portrait, landscape, figure, or still life. Media appropriate for the content of the publication and website will be selected. Traditional practice media recommended: watercolor, acrylic, oil, pastel, charcoal, graphite, gouache, pen-and-ink, colored pencil, and any combination of these in a mixed-media application. Potential cover images will be judged based on the impact of design cover lines, UPC codes, and image captions that will be superimposed over the selected artworks. Only finalists will be contacted at the conclusion of the competition.

ENTRY DEADLINE

August 31, 2010

ENTRY FEE

$50; Each submission may contain up to three artworks. (Only online digital entries will be accepted. No mailed submissions please.)

AWARDS

HOW ARTWORK WILL BE SELECTED

CATEGORIES

ENTRY DEADLINE

ENTRY FEE