The Extraordinary Tourist
Carefree feline fun: Art by TET.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Roof Top Cats, Series of 3 artworks.
Acrylic and Chalk Pastel on Canvas Frames, July 2007.
This is my latest series of artworks depicting six of my feline friends having a great time on a roof top in the evening light. Thought I'd just show them off here and let you know that each image is available to buy as a gift card from my Red Bubble Portfolio.Labels: art, cat, painting
Painting "Socks" the Cat
Sunday, May 20, 2007
 Behind every painting there is a story however, with my latest artwork "Socks" (the cat) there really is only something of a rant. In creating "Socks" I wanted to demonstrate that any half decent artist can stand in front of a blank canvas and paint 'something'.
In painting 'something' I mean painting an image with no pre-planning, deep thought or preliminary sketching what-so-ever. In simple terms, the artist just starts painting and sees what emerges from the marks made as the painting develops. So many artists seem to be creating work like this now.
I suspect this has come about with the pressure on professional artists to earn a living from what they do. Working in this format allows for a high turn out of art thus creating a larger inventory for sales. However in doing so, I feel that the artist compromises their talent by producing largely, forgettable art.
The most thinking I did for "Socks" was that I planned to paint something based on my existing style of cat characters. After that it was paint until I could see a finished cat. I didn't even plan that this cat would be sitting, looking like he's pulling up his socks. That's just what emerged, two hours later, from the brush strokes I began with.
"Socks" will never be remembered as a 'great' work of art (if, indeed, he is remembered at all).
Non artists may look at "Socks" and think that it is a pretty good painting. As an artist I look at this kind of work and think... "yeah, it's okay but it's not really the best I can do."
There's not much skill and very little craft involved. I'd like to know when these two elements of creating an artwork became so less important in comparison to the spontaneous emotion, experimental exploration and fleeting impressions that seems to dominate contemporary creative process.
I'd like to aspire to something greater. I'd like to view art that encourages me to do so. I want to be inspired by new ideas rather than past masters. Do artists really need to churn out art like a machine or would you pay a little more for art that is obviously more thought out and crafted?Labels: art, artist, cat, ideas, modern, opinion, painting
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