Successes versus Failures

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll pop? There's a question that haunted me all throughout my childhood. And now that the fleeting thoughts of my youth have matured into the complicated questions of my adulthood - I am left with a new question: How many failures does it take to get to a successful painting?

Red City
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/red-city-laura-swink.html

I was pondering this on the way to work this morning. I've been in a funk the last week or two and it's really come down to the new piece on which I've been working. Basically, it just isn't going where I think I am directing it to go. Do all paintings have a mind of their own and like a horse you have to break them in order for them to perform as you desire? Is it really that complicated? Or do I just lack any real talent?

I had some really high hopes for the piece and it's just not going where I am leading it - so now I am left to wonder why. The bigger question, however : Is it this way for everyone? How many failures do you have before you get the piece that you've had in your head?

Or is it even simpler than that? When a painter starts on a work, is there no expectation in their minds, no mental picture as to how the piece turns out, or what it is supposed to look like? If that's the case, then I am simply putting myself through far too much worry and overworking the piece until I cannot save it anymore. Maybe my expectations are too high.

I just don't have the answers to these questions. And for certain I am looking to scrape the paint off the canvas, let the skimmed coat dry and simply start over again. And then I think - "Well, what about the next one?" So then I resign myself to putting down the piece until another day - or another month later.

So what now?
Is it like this for everyone?

Blue Noon, light through the lens of rain...

Noon on a rainy day was the impetus for this painting titled "Blue Noon"
I love rainy days, as the surrounding colors become blurred in the ambient light of the environment. And the best rainy days, bring large storms with beautiful white thunderheads and cooling rains.
This piece is an acrylic on a small canvas and sold to a collector in Baltimore, Maryland. Upon receipt of two of my paintings, this collector was kind enough to write to me and tell me to quit my job and paint full time. From then on, I vowed to strive to make every new piece even better than the last:

Blue Noon

Light is a beautiful element in any painting. It creates mood, it defines shadows, it fires the imagination with its effect on color and form. Catching the essence of sunlight and light in general in a painting can be challenging, since every color can convey it on some level - but combinations of color don't necessarily produce the same effect.
I love working with the colors of red and yellow, for me they are two very suitable colors of capturing light and I think it was successful in this piece entitled
"Stroll in the Morning Mist"

Fine Art, no rhyme, no reason...

 An afternoon with little to do, a small canvas, a few left-over tubes of paint and a quiet house can often be a recipe for a good painting. "Fire and Ice" was one of those quick successes that I wish were so prevalent every time I sit down to paint.

It was the idea that you could just wash the canvas with color, add more color, add more water and just keep going. What is so fantastic is looking deep into the subject matter and seeing the sheer amount of colors that compose this piece.

Upon its debut, it sold within a week. Prints are available at Fine Art America and this link:
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/fire-and-ice-laura-swink.html

And there are many other paintings on Fine Art America that are worth a look as well, among them, you will find many of my other pieces:
"Circles" Canvas Prints

The Importance of Naming Your Art Work

Have you ever seen the movie Amadeus? An oscar winner from the eighties, it's definitely worth the time to watch it at least once in your life - as it gives you a rare look into the mind of a genius, and the people who recognize it.

That being said, it's not the discussion about genius that keeps me referring back to the movie - it's the pictures that the movie creates to help you understand the artist. Case in point is the scene where Mozart is conducting the last performance of Don Giovanni. After watching these few minutes of the scene the writers of the movie actually have you convinced that you want to buy subscription tickets to the opera. I mean seriously - the opera. But it isn't the music or the visuals that have the viewer so engulfed in the scene - it's Soliari's description of what is going on in the head of that strange little man named Mozart.

I suppose we can spend a lot of time debating whether or not the narrative prods you to buy season opera tickets - but the point I need to make regarding this is a valid one...At no time should an artist title a piece "Untitled" Simply stated, you remove the description, the narrative - from the viewer and along with it any emotion that he or she would otherwise attach to the piece, thus squelching their desire to dive deeper into the piece's meaning and it's overall effect.


You have robbed the artwork of it's soul.

Imagine it:
"Oh what a sweet baby - what's her name?"
"UNTITLED"


Or this:
Buy this cool new car from (insert car company name here)
"The new UNTITLED V-6 with six speed automatic transmission"
There's something you want to fork over $35K for - yes?

Good heavens, if the car companies won't do it - why do YOU?
Do you know how much time and money the automakers spend in order to give the car a name that will appeal to it's target market? And it's harder for them - they have to do this with a simple word.

Take for example "I drive a Nitro" (Isn't that an explosive??) versus "I drive a Milan" (Named for a town in Italy) There are two very different sets of emotion that you will attach to each car simply because of its name.

And now to get back to the soul of your artwork - the song with out the lyrics, the very moment at which you were to verbally communicate with your viewers. Is it so unimportant that you would name your piece "UNTITLED?" People buy art because it stirs them on some level we cannot grasp, and often times that little title on the piece pulls the viewer into some other place they wouldn't otherwise go without your help. It gives them a glimpse into your mood, your memory - your moment and it connects them with you every time they refer back to it. It's that important.

I can go on and on and on making this point -
but I hear the dead commander calling "Don Giovanni" from the grave.

I think that one day I shall see this opera for certain, not because I'm a fan of opera - but because I got to see it from the artist's perspective - for a moment I got insight to where he was at the time of it's creation, and I want to feel the hair stand up on the back of my neck just one more time....

"Afternoon Clouds"

I know this work should have more fanfare as I "introduce" it into the public, but I simply don't know WHAT to say about it. The work is more or less exactly what you see, nothing more and maybe that's the draw of it for those who have looked upon it since this morning's Facebook debut.


I don't know - it's one of those melancholy pieces that artists do and then you look upon it forever, simply because it's beautiful and it touches some other melancholy place inside you. It took me a year to get the sky just the way I wanted it and I'm pleased with it as it is - while it will never be the "Mona Lisa" I'm certain I will be forever happy with it's outcome.

Threnody: A dirge, a lament, and a beginning....

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/threnody-laura-swink.html
Prints for this work are available at Fine Art America, use the link above.

This is one of the first pieces of artwork I accomplished when I decided to start painting seriously many years ago. It holds for me some significance as it marks a transition from my career as a flutist, and the start of my career as an artist, which I am happy to say has been a much better journey for me over the last so many years.

When I had started to explore the world of painting, I had come across a book on the Art of Robert McCall. He was the chief illustrator for NASA and his more creative works had a fantasy about them that were simply wonderful to take in. I bought the book, I still have it today - occasionally I journey through it again and again to see all the things that set my imagination on fire. One of the pieces that came from that was this piece which I called "Threnody"

Much of my work has a musical aspect to it - right now it's mostly in the names of the works, but as I explore new subjects, I continually find myself going back to my roots - so to speak. This piece, however, was a fantasy - a so called "Variations on a Theme" which was inspired by Robert McCall's work.

Created in 1993 and signed in 1994 (there's a long story behind that) this piece is now nearing 16 years old. Hard to believe that time has gone so quickly and good to feel that I have grown as an artist. Threnody still hangs in my home, kind of out of it's place amongst my more traditional decor, but commanding your attention none the less. Now as I look at it, the past seems as far away as the painted stars on the piece - a memory of a beginning somewhere long ago.

"Apples, Peach and Pear"-a painting by Laura Swink

So I wanted to see if I could finish a painting in under two hours. I took an old canvas and simply started to paint on it. I had only an idea of where I wanted it to go, I didn't draw anything - I simply wanted to be able to finish, that was the goal.
While I have to say I like the way it turned out, I only wish I had used a new canvas now...I don't think that the paint ridges from the old piece harm the new composition at all, it's just that it seems as tho I struggle more to make the perfect artwork on a new canvas and not the old ones - and I seem to be more successful with the old ones.

So either I am too hard on myself, or I simply have no real concerns about ruining an old canvas; thus, I'm more likely to just let myself go and not over-think the project.
Painting is always a journey.

This piece is soon to be posted at Fine Art America, at that time - I will have the link activated here.

Music and Painting - when "moody" is the flavor of the day.

Bear McCreary...
There are those people of whom you become aware in your lifetime that really hit you below the belt with their creativity and vision. Coming to mind is a composer that I have become reacquainted with only because I have been looking for a version of the song "Watch Tower" which was originally composed by Jimi Hendrix.
His name is Bear McCreary.

A few scant years ago John (my husband) and I became enthralled with the new version of Battlestar Galactica. I remember when they were showing the previews on the Sci-Fi channel, and having grown up in that era, I distinctly remember the original show, most of which is very forgettable. It was the quintessence of 1970's TV: badly written, marginally acted/directed, poorly shot, mediocre special effects - yes, a glittering jewel of the cultural depression and its obsession with "jiggle TV".

John and I had a hearty laugh over it - can you really resurrect something that bad and make it into something worth watching?

Apparently, you can...

While I admit that Sci-Fi is not a genre that everyone can attach themselves to, I can only say that this show hardly classifies itself as sci-fi and then only because it takes place in space on spaceships. The series really was more about the human struggle to survive catastrophic and life-changing events - it was edgy, artsy and had some really unusual sets, concepts and the like. It was a fantastic journey and I was sad to see that it was over so soon.

In order to understand where I am writing from, it's important to understand what about this series made it so great - there were a number of things...but one that stood out above all the rest is the orchestral score. Truly unique. No longer did you hear the sweeping sounds of a large orchestra playing the usual triumphant, tragic score. Rather, it was a combination of vocal melodic chants, bars of music that had a distinct Irish flair to it and all backed up with the aid of African drumbeat rhythms and Indian influences. While putting together such a diverse set of genres is an incredibly tall order, this composer makes you think he's been doing that since the dawn of time - in other words, he's made it "sound" easy. As if "Oh yeah, those things go together like PB & J"

Therein lies the mark of McCreary's  genius.

But getting back to my main point of my rediscovered acquaintance with Bear McCreary... I had remembered that an episode (well, a few episodes, actually) had featured the song "Watch Tower" and I thought it was a pretty good tune and only in the last few days did I remember to look it up on iTunes and purchased it.

I was wholly unaware of how wonderful this version of the song is.
It's so fantastic that you wouldn't care if you got lost in it for days on end.
It is created from a complicated set of African rhythms, East Indian instruments (a throw back to the 60's perhaps?), parts of melody from the show's original score and the body of the original song. These things meld together to so seemlessly you simply would never know the song's real origin, and that is not a bad thing for the entire piece, as the original song remains wholly intact, not a "theme and variations" and not what many are calling "sampled" music these days, either. The song itself is so utterly out of its genre you wouldn't think it could be successfully recreated in the environment which the composer put it, and he skillfully molds the piece to do exactly what he wanted it to do. For this contribution to the artistic community I would have to say a heartfelt "thank you" to Bear McCreary!

I listen to a lot of music while I paint, the moodier - the better. I'm not entirely certain why moody works for me when I'm painting, but that's where I want to be when immersed. I think this piece will become a part of my repertoire of music "for painting"  Take the opportunity to hear it and I think you won't be disappointed.

Azimuth: Celestial objects and their observers....

Here's the link to the piece:
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/azimuth-laura-swink.html

Azimuth:
This piece simply demanded to be large in it's scope - more like a great epic novel that one spends many hours reading. I chose a canvas that was 48-inches wide x 50-inches high for it. The composition was drawn on the computer and then recreated on the surface. It was important to bring all the elements together so that there wouldn't be big blocks of opaque color - I wanted a synergy among the elements: they were to exist on the image but not to draw attention to themselves.
Overall, I felt that this piece was successful. The strong hot-molten colors command attention, but a soft glow of the objects wear away it's harsh angular presence. It is now available as large scale  prints up to 48 inches at Fine Art America.

Buy a print of this piece here:
http://fineartamerica.com/products/azimuth-laura-swink-canvas-print.html

What is in a Rhapsody?

Rhapsody: A free instrumental composition, typically one that is emotional in character.

 

http://laura-swink.artistwebsites.com/featured/1-rhapsody-laura-swink.html

Although you can't quite call paintings "musical" in any respect - the lines of this piece have a flowing quality that is reminiscent more of sound than of artistic composition.
It's hard to name a painting, since they are often like children to their creators, but unlike children - the finished piece is more defined than that of a small child whose path in life has yet to be decided.

Rhapsody is now on the list of my SOLD pieces of artwork - but it continues to be a popular piece of art, getting more hits in this category than any of the other pieces I have listed there. And wouldn't you like to know why? I sure would. Art on some level touches the emotion of viewer, it's like a bridge between the artist and his (or in this case, her) audience. Perhaps there is no more information other than that.

While a simple statement - it is obvious that the thought process is much more difficult to pin down to one or two sentences. Time to paint....