State of the Art (Part One)

Over the last few weeks, in an effort to understand the current state of the visual arts, I have surfed my way through countless internet sites that attract amateur and professional artists. With a few exceptions it has been a depressing business. 

The sites fall into two main categories: Face Book Groups and On-Line Art Galleries. From these can be found links to the websites of individual artists. To gauge reaction to my own work I have joined and contributed to some of the sites. I thank those sites for having me on board, albeit that my responses may be deemed critical. But bear in mind, criticism - and in particular self criticism - is an essential component in art.

The numerous Face Book groups are generally focused to those working in a specific medium (pencil, pastel, watercolour, etc.) or location. They mostly attract aspiring amateurs and the groups administrator(s) rules the roost. Portraits and landscapes are the most popular subjects. A large percentage of the work submitted is meticulously copied from photographs. The nude figure - the bedrock of art through the ages - is for the most part absent and banned from some groups. 

In essence Face Book groups serve as mutual admiration societies. Typical comments include: Very Nice...Amazing...So Beautiful...How Lovely...Wonderful...So Sweet.

Apart from being "blocked" from two sites my own work fared reasonably well in terms of feedback. Today's opening picture is one that I submitted and - a rarity for responses in these groups - I had some "constructive" criticism.

...personally, I would do two things differently, use a much smaller brush and much less water. It seems like the dampness is giving you problems...A very fine brush will give you much better control of the medium. And yes, it will require patience.

I will try to heed the above advice. Who knows, with less water, a smaller brush and patience, I may improve.

Brian Tai's painting, shown below. is at the upper end of the scale. But he also attracted a similar comment:

Nice painting, but not enough painting (I assume that to mean, smaller brush and more patience needed over detail)!

It's a good job that Face Book Groups were not around in Van Gogh's time as otherwise he might have been persuaded to use a smaller brush, less paint and more patience!

I will have more to say about the state of the art in forthcoming posts.