Sky

When I think of the word "Multiples" I think of Marcel Duchamp.
And sure enough, a short google turns up the fact that Marcel Duchamp allowed Multiples of his "Readymades" to be manufactured.

Which has got nothing to do with what I was really going to tell you.

When I went to college to study "fine art" (as opposed to what I do now :) )  I had quite a few wonderful teachers.

One of them, an amazing artist named Jill, still comes to all our shows.

She is the kind of person who doesn't mince her words - the kind of person we all need to look at our work and tell us the truth about it. If your work is beautiful she will look you in the eye and tell you that it is.

 

If she doesn't like the work she will take you over to the painting, look you in the eye and say: "What were you thinking?!"

:)

I saw Jill in a gallery a few years ago and she said something that has stuck in my mind..

It's hard to explain, but it is about the learned aspects of admiring art and, in particular, viewing our own art with a critical eye.

And she explained something that should have  been quite obvious - that if we are exposed to an artist's work for long enough and told that it is good, or we see that the artist is a commercial success, then gradually our subconscious valuation of our own art changes, in that when we do a painting which reminds us consciously or unconsciously of a successful artists's work, then we value that painting more.

 

That in short, we feel that the work is a success because it reminds us of a successful artists' work. It's a pitfall waiting for all of us unwary "artists".

So ... it's been a common technique in Big Australian Art Contests over the last few years to do large realist portraits then throw drips of paint all over them to give that "loose" look.


It's like the "I don't really care" approach - when you do really care, because 50 grand is at stake.

Interesting...

 

So I threw some drips in this week..... can't say I like them very much :)

But they must be good : everybody's doing it.

:)