What defines ‘I am an Artist?’
For a long time, even after I had studied art at university, and done many different works of art and ceramics, I still did not consider myself an ‘Artist.’
I think this is something that happens to a lot of people and even prevents them from continuing on with their love of art, because they feel like a bit of a fraud.
The truth is that you don’t need years doing a degree or anyone else’s opinion to confirm that you are indeed an artist, and it is one of the few professions where this is very true.
The reason I can say this so confidently, is because I do have friends who are very successful artists, one in particular, Kaylenne Creighton, who is an amazing Australian Landscape artist, is self-taught. She has exhibited all over Australia and overseas, and many happy customers have her beautiful artwork in their homes. Her favorite quote is:’ You never stop learning!’
Studying art at college or university
If you want to study art at a college or university, you will be offered everything from short 6 week courses to 3 or 4-year degree courses, which can cover a range of art skills including:
- Basic drawing
- Life drawing
- Acrylics
- Oils
- Pastels
- Water-colours
- Sculpting
- Ceramics
- Print-making
It depends on your chosen genre and how technical you want to become. You are also offered the opportunity to study business development to learn valuable skills in marketing your art, an area where many artists unfortunately fail.
A further advantage of formal education is that you are given subjects covering the history and theoretical aspects of art, learning about the masters, the transforming periods of Impressionism, Pop Art, unusual or transformative art styles, style leaders, and disruptors.
The fact is that Art ranges from highly technical, precisely delivered pieces that follow their particular genre’s rule, all the way through to natural-born talent which is often freestyle, to experimental, and everything in between.
If you are happy with your work, and you share it with others who appreciate it and want to put it on their wall or in their house or business, then you are an Artist.
If you market yourself as an artist, then you are an artist!
The benefit I found personally of studying art many years ago, was that I learned skills that made creating my art easier and I think more accurately. But that is because my style of art is very frequently photo-realism and I really appreciate what I learned.
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
My teacher Peter McWilliams referred to Betty Edward’s book: ‘Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.’ We were trained in one of the most interesting aspects: drawing what we saw of the shape around the object, rather than the object itself. It took quite some practice to ignore my brain’s natural inclination to focus on the object, but once I could see the shapes that formed around the sheep’s skull sitting on the table, it was like seeing a whole other reality. You use the right side of your brain to achieve this. The left brain will insist on looking at and drawing the object.
When I paint a rose, for example, I am painting shapes that don’t even make sense until I stand back to study it, and it is a revelation to see how they have created a curled petal or a beautiful folded leaf which I literally couldn’t see up close as I reproduced the shapes and colors I was looking at. (i.e. using the right side of my brain)
Is 25 or 30 too old to become an artist?
In answer to this question, I know a person who was in their 80’s who decided to go back to school and successfully completed a degree in fine art. There is no age factor when it comes to becoming an artist. If you feel a longing to do it, then do it.
Can you become a good artist in a year?
It depends on the style you are studying. You may have degrees of success based on how much time you put into it and how well you can translate what your eye sees onto canvas or whatever medium you are using.
If your brain is weak in this aspect, you need to train it, and that is exactly like using a muscle. The more you do it, the stronger and better you become at it. Because everyone’s brains are different it isn’t easy to define a time range, but ideally becoming an artist is almost an organic continual process that never stops.
You are always learning something new, always being challenged, ( as Kaylenne said ). The work produced is reflective of your time, effort, and skill level. It is also dependent on how tricky the style of art is that you wish to pursue, and how patient you are with the chosen style and your own limitations.
A perfectionist will want longer, whereas a relaxed, free spirit may be very happy with their work after a very short time. I have been painting for years, and still find myself challenged, I still make mistakes and I still have times when I doubt my abilities. But then again, I am a perfectionist and my favorite style is photo-realism.
I self-criticize my work less when it is not obviously photo-realism, such as the landscape and sea or river-scape paintings I have done.
Can anyone become an artist?
Anyone who has a real desire to become an artist can become an artist because motivation and enthusiasm are essential to overcome any obstacles that stand in the way of success.
If you can’t bear making mistakes and starting over, or you want to paint like Leonardo DaVinci immediately, you probably won’t stick it out.
It depends on what you are happy with. Can everyone become a world-class sculptor? That is an amazing skill that really does develop over many years of hard work, especially becoming familiar with and adapting to the challenges of different materials.
My cousin Sylvio Apponyi is such a sculptor and there is no way I could achieve his skill set in even one year. But he would definitely have me creating some cute turtles or a lizard if I really wanted to learn and tried very hard. (You can see Sylvio’s work at www.apponyi.net )
And this again is the interesting aspect of being an artist, because some areas of this field do take years to become truly accomplished and others, like painting a very simple beach scene in acrylic paints on canvas, can be taught in a short course.
If I decided to learn how to paint portraits in oil, something I have never done before as an acrylic painter, I would be a novice.
The only difference would be that I have a fundamental skill set in measuring, perspective, color, light and shade experience. This is all able to be learned, and importantly you don’t necessarily have to be a ‘natural born’ talent.
As the drawings in Betty Edward’s book testify, there are before and after drawings done by people who really couldn’t draw at all, creating remarkably good drawings after training their brains to see in a different way.
