Thursday, May 5, 2011

Catching Robert Genn

I got up at 6 this morning.  It came to me that Robert Genn was already at his easel in British Columbia.  And he is behind us by 3 hours.  Drats!  Further behind.

Robert is famous for his advice to "go to your room" and paint as the best way to evolve as a painter on the way to the rarified air of becoming an artist.  Of course he also means to seek out various concepts as you do this mileage on the canvas.  That way you can measure progress.  Very important.

This approach is horizontally opposed to a steely focus on selling your work.  Not that sales are bad, but the effort takes you away from your evolution and often results in selling inferior work that doesn't evolve.  I know some who sell near full time and paint little.  But as my mentor said "people will buy all kinds of crap".

So how to catch Genn?  Well he is older than me.  The other part is to spend more time at the easel.  Hard to do when he already averages several hors a day more than me.  Ok,  I'll have to sleep less and ignore my wife, family and friends more.  I'm leaving for New York City in a few minutes.  15 canvases and a few clothes.  Plan is to paint each day.  

Here is the latest image from my Glen Williams series.

Past Closing Time, 12x16, Oil on Canvas

There are a few experiments associated with this painting.  I'll explain when I get home.  Meanwhile I'll try to blog on the road.

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