Art is expressing what I am.
I cannot express myself as finely through words, or cooking or teaching or through a thousand other skills.
I paint to express my heart. It just so happens that the way I apply the paint appeals to the public so they buy the canvas with my paint on it.
Every person is an artist in some aspect of their life but most are not recognised by society as having any special value.
I am fortunate in that, the way I express ‘who I am’ appeals to the ‘who I am’ in many people.
Successful artists are not clever, they are lucky. Lucky that society is willing to pay for their form of expression.
I have been a professional artist for over 30 years. Not surprisingly, I have learned a few things about art and life.
Some of these things have been expressed through writing and illustration of these words. A lot of these words are not conventional, so straight people will not be comfortable reading them.
Hey! I am an artist, I am allowed to be a bit weird. I am encouraged to be a bit different and to express new ideas through my work.
I love the concept of the infinite. I understand when I look out into the sky that we live within the infinite. We are not going to go there when we die, we are already there! You cannot come and go from infinity, you are there as a part of it now! You forgot, that’s all.
Have a look at the books I am offering in my store.
You are not normal…
Within you there are strange ideas, bizarre thoughts and twisted plans. Before you reveal them to the world,these should consider the consequences. Society will reject you and nobody wants to be an outcast. Humans are very social creatures and we fear social rejection.
If you want to be a creative person, you have to get over this fear and be prepared to be mocked. An artist works from the heart and the heart, unlike the brain does not have a social conscience. The heart expresses from the infinite self whereas the brain works from the very limited experiences of the outer world.
Originality comes from the heart and the heart does not conform. If you are a creative person, you will become an outcast, a weirdo… That’s the nature of society.
So if you want to live a normal life, don’t become an artist.
How do you be creative when you have no idea what you want to say? How can you create a work of art when you don’t know how to express your heart?
If you are seeking a core expression for your creative work, start observing your own actions. What is it that you really think is important in life? It could be as simple as good manners or as complicated as ‘science meets religion’. It does not matter, as long as you keep looking for it, until it is clear in your mind. Only then, do you have a reason to be expressive and creative.
When you discover this passion, you will find it very easy to express your ideas in whatever medium you choose. You might want to sing about it. Write stories about it or even just get up and talk about it. Does not matter as long as you uncover it, you will know what you want to do to express it.
So if you want to be creative, first uncover what you want to say!
I recently came across flavors.me and about.me
Both sites give you a free one page website. What a great challenge!
See what your creative mind can do with one page. Here are 3 that I did:
Add your link to my comments and I will put you on my links page. Let’s see how creative (funny?) you can be.
I went to an art market the other night. It was supported by the government and was supposed to showcase up and coming artists. They even had little studios where they could create their wonders for the world.
The market was embarrassing. They were not artists, they were people pretending and wishing they were artists. True artists are not afraid of getting out into the world and letting the public decide whether or not their art is good. If their art sells, then the public likes it and it has served its purpose. If it doesn’t sell, you can’t blame the public, either the art is very bad or it is unpleasant and not the sort of thing that you would want on your wall.
Most of these people couldn’t even draw and most of the art was ugly. You can’t blame the public from smiling without buying.
The conclusion, art that needs to be propped up is not going to work.
Ever wondered why monks and other religious fanatics get a look of serenity about them?
Society of course has painted a romantic picture about them being close to perfection or a god or some other mystical, magic power.
Want to know what the true situation is?
They are all brain dead. They are comatose from not living in the real word. They have spent their lives not working, without family responsibilities, not paying taxes or even having to make an effort to get food or clothing.
Put a child in a mind-numbing situation where he is not allowed to think, be an individual or make an effort and you will end up with an idiot.
Reality is not always obvious!
It’s not easy being an artist, especially if you are normal.
If you do all of the normal things that most other people do and believe all of the ordinary things that most other people do, there is not much chance that you will ever be extra-ordinary!
If you want to be creative, you cannot be ordinary, you need to learn to be extraordinary.
The media pounds people’s minds into submission so that we all think the same way, buy the same products, mock the same ideas and follow our leaders as if sensible is the only way to go.
Creativity requires that you question the ordinary and refuse to believe the normal. It’s not easy and most creative people also become targets for normal, boring folk.
It’s not easy being an artist but creativity demands a shift away from the comfortable so that you present a new way of seeing.
Normal people are blind, a creative artist can shed some light onto life but it’s not easy because normal people resent their clichés being questioned.
Television, movies, music and magazines all applaud conventional behaviour. Even the ‘radical’ behaviour that they pretend to encourage, demands that the observer still conforms to the rules of ‘outrageous’.
It is not easy to be a non-conformist because you make most people feel very uncomfortable.
As soon as you suggest an idea that is abstract or odd, you are branded as weird, not in a nice way but in a way that would have you outcast from society. People do not like behaviour or ideas that are not sanctioned by the majority. Even rebels – bikies, street people, street gangs etc. all conform to the rules of their breakaway group.
A non-conformist, or true rebel does not need group approval or direction. He/she stands alone. True artists are non-conformists, that’s why they are classed as odd. This is an advantage for an artist, it makes life easy. But… if you are a non-conformist in any other field, it is not quite so easy, then you are classed as weird and it can be very uncomfortable.
It’s not easy being odd but how else are you going to express your uniqueness?
The road of life is scattered with sharp bits, stinging things and bad luck. No good complaining about it, that’s just the way this planet is built. You can pretend it is a beautiful world and make associated cooing sounds of wonder and amazement but bad luck and awful things will keep on attacking you. Anyway, on this planet beauty is mainly visual.
In this world the meanest, toughest and fastest get the best bits. The nice people get the leftovers.
So what do you do about it? Well, obviously complaining and crying does not make it any different. Blaming someone else doesn’t seem to help either and your problems won’t go away just by wishing and hoping.
You either toughen up and get to the top of the heap sometimes or you just keep on complaining and keep on trying to avoid the rain of garbage that never stops falling on all of the nice people at the bottom of the hill.
The art of life – not getting swamped by garbage!
I saw a man on his morning walk. He was not thin but he was still walking briskly.
Then I noticed that he was adjusting his belt. He was making it tighter. That proved it! A brisk morning walk makes you lose weight. So unless you want to lose weight and become a skinny weakling… don’t do it!
It’s observations as fickle as this that many people base their life’s convictions upon! Idiots!
Life is much more than that foolish body of yours can ever interpret. Let go of your fickle and trite assumptions and try having no ideas for a while. It may even frighten you as new possibilities seep into that previously biased and limited brain space.
Assume that you know nothing and you are probably right!
Not everyone can be an artist or a ballet dancer or even an astronaut. We are all different. We all have a different core purpose. Some people can strongly feel this purpose and they act on it.
Their road is not necessarily easy but they know what they must do and they do it. They love what they do and they can’t be stopped.
Other people do not even believe in a core purpose, let alone pursue ‘their life’s work’. They do not even bother to look within to learn about themselves. That’s fine, it’s all a personal choice.
But sometimes, a fantasy can be mistaken for a goal. Sometimes you will bang your head against a wall and no matter how hard you try, you will not succeed.
Sometimes you have to give up and find a new dream.
Don’t believe people who tell you that you can do anything… you will probably notice that they are not living what they are talking about anyway. You can’t do anything because you are a limited being in a very limited body.
To be an artist you need to have a reason for your expression, a personal focus that causes you to express your unique style.
What do you want to say? What do you want to shout out to the world? What is important to you?
You need to know what you are going to say before you speak. You need to know your song before you sing. You need to know your goal before you begin your creative pursuit.
Work out what you want to express before you frustrate yourself with vague meanderings on your blank canvas.
Came across a few artists on a social site who think that the only real artists are those who have been formerly trained. It’s a very narrow and strange way of seeing art.
All Colleges, Universities, Institutions etc. are products of the system. They are corporate in their thinking and traditional in their training. They are extensions of the government and hence present careful, institutionalised attitudes. They are mechanical production lines that produce trained monkeys.
Some of these monkeys are able to break out of their training and become great artists, but most cling to the few rules they learned as they try to make it in the practical world of art.
Art is an expression of the character, the personality. How can anyone tell you what you are and how you should express it? How can people who are not successful artists teach you how to be a successful artist?
The system sucks and if you want to follow its foolish ways, then you will probably suck too!
I have been a professional artist for over 30 years,for most of those years business was good. I have sold thousands of seascape paintings and done thousands of portraits. At the moment the economy is changing, art is a luxury for many people. It is becoming more difficult to sell art in the same way that it has been sold for years.
You have to lower your prices. You have to be less precious about your work and you have to be prepared to give generous discounts. It’s quite humbling… for a while. Then you wake up and say, “Hey, stop making a big deal about a constantly changing world. There’s always change, so adapt and find new ways of selling and presenting your work. There’s always someone out there who is able to buy peace and beauty” (my speciality).
I am forever scanning for new ways of working, new ways of selling and new ways to market my art. After all, I am a creative artist so it should be just as natural to be a creative business person.(psst… wannna buy a painting…?)
I watched 2 friends wrestling at Tae Kwon Do the other night. We are not taught to wrestle, so when we are down on the ground, we tend to scramble and scratch around slipping from random grasps to unexpected twists and turns.
Watching, it became obvious that they were not going anywhere. They were spending a lot of energy but had no focus on a direction. As martial artists we are taught to fight on our feet, that’s where we should be if we want to be effective. In a wrestling situation, our aim should be to get out of it and stand up again.
How many times in life do you do the same thing? You go round and round, fighting the same problems blindly pushing and shoving and going nowhere. This is not where you should be if you are going over and over the same old and not going anywhere. You need to get out of there, stand up and attack life from a new direction.
So if your art is stale, repetitive and not selling, change your situation. Stand up and work from where you are comfortable.
It’s not easy being an artist… especially if you are not a business person. In the last 2 years the economy has changed, money has shifted and corporations have openly taken over the world.
Business is different. Values are changing. Luxury items are lower on the list of priorities. Many older people, who, not long ago spent freely, are being much more careful.
So how do you survive if your income depends on the sale of art or other items that are now classed as unnecessary? Well you focus on your situation, decide where you need to be and do what you can do to get there.
You have to change, maybe drop your prices, change your target market, offer incentives, whatever. You have to be creative with your business as well as your art!
Nobody is going to feel sorry for you and carry you on to glory. If you are an artist, it is no good depending on a galleries to keep you going, they have the same problem that you have – a changing economy. You need to be innovative and find new ways of presenting and selling your art!
I have a new website – pleasantplaces.com.au.
This is a new way of presenting a landscape (well it’s new to me at least!). I have combined 3 different landscapes on the 1 canvas and the result – it makes your mind reach back into a vague past, seeking memories that are aroused through a scene that is vaguely familiar.
I am very happy with my new works. I have found that they are particularly powerful if you stare at them for a while. Then you begin to fall into some sort of feeling of peace as your mind associates pleasant memories with these landscapes from my imagination.
I hope you like them - pleasantplaces.com.au.
I got it! It didn’t take as long as I thought it would.
I am now a skyscape artist – have a look at my new website skyscapes.com.au.
Same old method – practice, patience and determination. You can’t go wrong with that simple combination. It’s not easy, you have to swallow your pride sometimes when you can’t achieve what you are yearning for. I use a simple method to handle such situations – I don’t care. ‘Don’t care’ certainly solves a lot of problems and makes it easier to gain a new skill.
So now it is constant refinement – and I don’t do that with effort, I let it happen naturally as painting after painting naturally refines my techniques.
Now all I have to do is paint and sell 100 skyscapes and I will be confidently a skyscape artist!
I am still steadily working towards my goal of being a professional skyscape artist. Most mornings I work on some paintings – adjusting, refining or painting over previous works.
It is important not to give these early works much value, otherwise I could stop halfway up skyscape mountain, thinking that I have reached the summit.
I will keep going until my work becomes irresistible and people have to have it. This worked years ago for my seascapes and I sold over 3000 of them. So applying similar techniques of patience, dedication and focus I keep on the steady road to my goal.
I have given myself until 1st of April to achieve this dream. I love to push myself to a crazy deadline. It’s going to be funny if I achieve it or not. If I am successful it will be funny because I was able to do it so quickly.
If I fail, then it will be funny because I had such gall as to speak my dreams out loud. Even if it doesn’t come good on that date, it will be successful one day. So the outcome will be the same, just the time frame may vary… and really who cares?
Came across a few artists on a social site who think that the only real artists are those who have been formerly trained. It's a very narrow and strange way of seeing art.
All Colleges, Universities, Institutions etc. are products of the system. They are corporate in their thinking and traditional in their training. They are extensions of the government and hence present careful, institutionalised attitudes. They are mechanical production lines that produce trained monkeys.
Some of these monkeys are able to break out of their training and become great artists, but most cling to the few rules they learned as they try to make it in the practical world of art.
Art is an expression of the character, the personality. How can anyone tell you what you are and how you should express it? How can people who are not successful artists teach you how to be a successful artist?
The system sucks and if you want to follow its foolish ways, then you will probably suck too!
Ever wondered why monks and other religious fanatics get a look of serenity about them?
Society of course has painted a romantic picture about them being close to perfection or a god or some other mystical, magic power.
Want to know what the true situation is?
They are all brain dead. They are comatose from not living in the real word. They have spent their lives not working, without family responsibilities, not paying taxes or even having to make an effort to get food or clothing.
Put a child in a mind-numbing situation where he is not allowed to think, be an individual or make an effort and you will end up with an idiot.
Reality is not always obvious!
It’s not easy being an artist, especially if you are normal.
If you do all of the normal things that most other people do and believe all of the ordinary things that most other people do, there is not much chance that you will ever be extra-ordinary!
If you want to be creative, you cannot be ordinary, you need to learn to be extraordinary.
The media pounds people’s minds into submission so that we all think the same way, buy the same products, mock the same ideas and follow our leaders as if sensible is the only way to go.
Creativity requires that you question the ordinary and refuse to believe the normal. It’s not easy and most creative people also become targets for normal, boring folk.
It’s not easy being an artist but creativity demands a shift away from the comfortable so that you present a new way of seeing.
Normal people are blind, a creative artist can shed some light onto life but it’s not easy because normal people resent their clichés being questioned.
I recently came across flavors.me and about.me
Both sites give you a free one page website. What a great challenge!
See what your creative mind can do with one page. Here are 3 that I did:
Add your link to my comments and I will put you on my links page. Let's see how creative (funny?) you can be.
What do you want to achieve? No, be realistic. Right now what do you want to do? Paint a portrait? Draw your dog? Carve a tree?
You need to be clear in your mind about where you are going. If you really want to be a professional artist then be prepared to do 100’s of works before you even start to be ready to sell. If you really just want to have fun, then pick a subject, pick your medium and play.
I paint and I also build websites. I talk to many people who want a website for their business. When I ask some of them to describe exactly what it is they want a site for, they can’t tell me. They can’t even think of a few keywords to describe themselves clearly.
You need to define who you are and where you are going. Whether you want a website or a new career or skill, you need to define clearly what it is you want and where you intend going.
Sit down a write a few words that summarize your intentions… Think about where you want to be say in 1 year from now. I am sure most of you have no idea! You won’t arrive if you have no destination!
'I want to be just like you'.
I think but I don't say 'liar!'
'If you really want to be an artist, then what are you doing about it?'
Of course the answer is always 'nothing'.
If you really want to achieve something, then wouldn't you be doing something about it now?
If you really wanted to lose weight, wouldn't you be eating less right now?
If you want to be an artist, why aren't you practicing every day?
Please don't say, 'I want to be just like you' because I don't believe you.
An experienced artist is like an accomplished dancer. They have long known all of the steps and now they have the freedom to express the feeling of the moment.
An experienced artist moves quickly and efficiently, without mistakes or hesitation. After years of playing the same game over and over, it is only natural that they know where they are going without having to think about it.
Years of experience teaches you ways of thinking, ways to achieve success and ways to please the public (the most critical part of the creative process).
If you don’t please your public, they won’t buy your art. Then you will die and not be able to paint any more.
So if you are just starting, don’t rush your work, don’t be impatient, rather learn the 1000’s of little steps necessary so that you can be outrageously spontaneous and ridiculously efficient in your art.
Ever wondered why monks and other religious fanatics get a look of serenity about them?
Society of course has painted a romantic picture about them being close to perfection or a god or some other mystical, magic power.
Want to know what the truth situation is?
They are all brain dead. They are comatose from not living in the real word. They have spent their lives not working, without familiy responsibilities, not paying taxes or even having to make an effort to get food or clothing.
Put a child in a mind-numbing situation where he is not allowed to think, be an individual or make an effort and you will end up with an idiot.
Reality is not always obvious!
I watched 2 friends wrestling at Tae Kwon Do the other night. We are not taught to wrestle, so when we are down on the ground, we tend to scramble and scratch around slipping from random grasps to unexpected twists and turns.
Watching, it became obvious that they were not going anywhere. They were spending a lot of energy but had no focus on a direction. As martial artists we are taught to fight on our feet, that's where we should be if we want to be effective. In a wrestling situation, our aim should be to get out of it and stand up again.
How many times in life do you do the same thing? You go round and round, fighting the same problems blindly pushing and shoving and going nowhere. This is not where you should be if you are going over and over the same old and not going anywhere. You need to get out of there, stand up and attack life from a new direction.
So if your art is stale, repetitive and not selling, change your situation. Stand up and work from where you are comfortable.
Television, movies, music and magazines all applaud conventional behaviour. Even the ‘radical’ behaviour that they pretend to encourage, demands that the observer still conforms to the rules of ‘outrageous’.
It’s not easy being an artist, especially if you are normal.
If you want to be creative, you cannot be ordinary, you need to learn to be extraordinary.
The media pounds people’s minds into submission so that we all think the same way, buy the same products, mock the same ideas and follow our leaders as if sensible is the only way to go.
Creativity requires that you question the ordinary and refuse to believe the normal. It’s not easy and most creative people also become targets for normal, boring folk.
It’s not easy being an artist but creativity demands a shift away from the comfortable so that you present a new way of seeing.
Normal people are blind, a creative artist can shed some light onto life but it’s not easy because normal people resent their clichés being questioned.
It’s not easy being an artist… especially if you are not a business person. In the last 2 years the economy has changed, money has shifted and corporations have openly taken over the world.
Business is different. Values are changing. Luxury items are lower on the list of priorities. Many older people, who, not long ago spent freely, are being much more careful. So how do you survive if your income depends on the sale of art or other items that are now classed as unnecessary? Well you focus on your situation, decide where you need to be and do what you can do to get there. You have to change, maybe drop your prices, change your target market, offer incentives, whatever. You have to be creative with your business as well as your art! Nobody is going to feel sorry for you and carry you on to glory. If you are an artist, it is no good depending on a galleries to keep you going, they have the same problem that you have - a changing economy. You need to be innovative and find new ways of presenting and selling your art!
Creativity is a non-competitive sport. You are not in it to be better, best or even to be outstanding. You are in it, to do your best and to be amazed by what you are capable of achieving.
It is useless to try and impress others. It is even more useless to attempt to be better than others.
How can you bring something unique into the world if your mind is partly distracted by your need to ‘improve’ or to ‘defeat’ or to ‘win’. You are a unique something living in a human form. You are capable of producing unique somethings that only you can do. There is no competitiveness about it!
You do not have to compete to be successful, you only have to be true to your own heart, your passion and your unique way of seeing the world.
Winning is useless, but creating for the sake of artistic expression is invaluable. If you need to compete, then compete with yourself, improve on your previous achievements, that will be enough to keep you busy. So do something about it now! Take the pressure from yourself and stop comparing and competing.
Have fun and go it alone - someone told me that fun is good for you!
How do you find a subject? I get an idea. I play with it as a possibility for a while. For example, I had been considering painting landscapes as an alternative to seascapes. I wasn’t quite comfortable with the traditional landscape idea, so I just let the idea roll around my mind for days, weeks.
Then I got the idea of doing a speed-painting style. I tried a couple of paintings to see how I felt. While I was painting I felt a strong urge to make the sky bigger, make it majestic.
I kept playing but the urge to paint grand skies got stronger.
I was getting passionate about the sky possibility whenever I talked to my family. As soon as I realised that I was passionate about painting big skies, I knew I was onto my new direction.
I am not a teacher! I am an artist but I am not interested in the art of teaching.
Fortunately, I have a friend who is not only a good artist but he is also a very good teacher. Len Hend has been painting for over 30 years and has been teaching art for nearly as long.
Len loves producing educational videos about painting. He is quickly able to take the beginner into the world of real art.
Not only that, he has lots of very helpful and practical tips for the established artist.
Even though I thought I knew a lot about art techniques, Len was able to teach me many more. Have a look at his new website (made by Colin) : LenHend
There are so many people on the planet, all busy in their own little worlds, running back and forth, hurrying here and there. From a distance it must look more frenzied than an ants nest before a storm. Everyone is busy with their problems. Everyone has problems… or have they?
Colin Perini is a world-renowned Australian artist. His work hangs in over 26 countries.
In his own words: “At first glance these paintings are very busy but when you stop and really look, you will find yourself drifting into a vague memory… you will recall somewhere like this that you may have been. You will find your mind relaxing into pleasant places you have visited, somewhere, maybe a long time ago.”
Colin Perini is a world-renowned Australian artist. His work hangs in over 26 countries. In his own words: ”The sea is a constantly changing dance of colour and passion. Each painting expresses one moment during it’s unpredictable expression. Even in the most wild of seas, beneath the passion of the moment, I see a heart of peace and beauty, this is what I paint.”