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The learning process is a subtle thing.
Sometimes it is an even flow of increasing skills, and then other
times it is an epiphany. The epiphany happens when you are doing something and all of
a sudden, it all makes sense. It
is a WOW moment. However,
most of the time, it is the daily grind that gets us to where we want to
go. The epiphanies are a
nice, fulfilling experience, but I think the daily drudge is what really
counts—and I suspect it is the drudge that brings those epiphanies on.
I don’t spend much time thinking about “my”
skill and creativity. They
are what they are—better than some, less than others.
But I do think about learning, and what is happening in my brain
when I learn. Learning is a
slow process, and it doesn’t happen overnight. It
happens a little bit at a time and is almost imperceptible. But it does happen. The
trick is to understand that it is happening—to understand that we have
grown as artists—because if we can’t understand that, our artist life
isn’t much fun. Many years
ago, I ran marathons—I still run some miles, but I’m more sane about
it these days. When I was
involved in that training, the folks that knew something about that deal
said that we went from one plateau to another.
We would train and get better, but then we would hit a
plateau—and stay there for some time period.
But eventually, we would get past that plateau—and jump a notch.
But it only happened if we kept working hard.
I think
art is like that. We work
hard, we struggle, we fight, and we seem to improve a little, and then one
day we get off of that plateau. We
make the jump to a new level. How
did that happen? Well, it happened because we had been doing the daily
drudge—trying to make the best of our art. We were diligent—we worked when things weren’t always
going our way. All those
efforts added up to that jump
Learning is like that—and I
think that creativity is like that. It
has to build and grow. Creativity
without information is a chimera—you can’t be creative unless you know
something—unless you have some experience.
There is a lot written about natural abilities, but I would posit
that it would be impossible to be creative unless we had learned at some
level. No one is born and can
do art without some level of education and culture.
There are natural abilities, but unless those natural abilities are
acted upon at some level, they will come to naught.
So, it really comes down to the fight to
learn—to interact with our culture, to understand and master technique. Some of us have lesser natural abilities, but are willing to
work hard. Others have great
natural ability, but don’t have that work ethic.
Who knows what combination each of us has, but we should think
about it. Who are we—are we
high naturals, medium naturals, low naturals.
Are we hard workers, medium workers, or low workers?
I don’t suppose we can do a lot about our natural ability, but I
think we can do something about how hard we are willing to work.
We should understand the nature of
learning. It isn’t a magic
thing—it is a matter of doing. If
we do something and do it often enough, we will learn and get better.
We may not be great artists—and then again we may—but what are
we willing to do to find out? Learning
is about doing—doing, and doing more.
You have to be willing to invest in the doing, good or bad. And you have to keep doing—good or bad. That is the only way.
So what price are you willing to
pay to become a better artist?
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Watercolor
Passion
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Magazine for watercolor and acrylic artists and all art lovers
