Tesia Blackburn - Acrylic Painting with Passion. Explorations for Creating Art that Nourishes the Soul

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ITALIA XI

Tesia Blackburn

Acrylic on paper

15" 20" (38cm 51cm)

Who is this book for? Everyone. If you are a beginning artist or a seasoned veteran, this book is for you. If youve ever stared at the blank page, canvas or wall and wondered, What now? This book is for you. If you have little time, no studio and little money, this book is for you. Maybe youre a full-time working artist who has hit a dry spell; this book is for you, too. This book is about how to get the creative spirit workingfor the first time if youre a newbie or to jump-start it again if you are a longtime artist who needs a fresh perspective.

Ive asked around and there seems to be a consensus: The hardest part about making art is getting started. Even professional artists get stuck at what I like to call the procrastination station. You have the passion but all this other stuff gets in the way. First you have to find a space to work in, then you have to focus your attention and wait for divine inspiration and maybe, just maybe, theres time to get something done before you have to make dinner, pick up the kids from soccer or balance your checkbook.

But what if it wasnt that hard? What if all you had to do was to tear up a brown bag and glue it onto a canvas? (Were going to do that here.) That will take about ten minutes. Just push the breakfast dishes aside and glue the bag down. Then come back later and work for ten minutes more. Do this three or four times and at the end of a week, youll have a finished piece.

That is the premise of this book: taking your desire, your passion, to make art and using it in manageable chunks. Ten minutes here, twenty minutes there and pretty soon, youre making stuff. Put aside the idea that you are making art and just have fun.

I also want to encourage you to suspend your ideas of what makes art versus what is craft or hobby. You might think that ordinary stuff like paper towels or brown paper bags cant be used to make art. Too crafty for you? Consider that Robert Rauschenberg, the world-class American artist, used newspapers, old clothes and urban debris in his work. His pieces sell for millions. In his collages, Picasso used old theatre tickets, newspapers and oilcloth among other things. And everyone knows Picasso was an artist with a capital A!

You will also notice there isnt a lot of what I like to call navel staring. That is to say, Im not going to ask you to meditate or chant or stare at the sunset to become more creative. Just do the exercises and the creativity will take care of itself. I do believe in inspiration; dont get me wrong. Im just more of the mind of the writer Somerset Maugham, who is said to have remarked, I only work when inspiration strikes. Fortunately, it strikes every morning at nine oclock sharp. In other words, just do it.

Sit back and enjoy this ride. Theres no test at the end, no critique, no scorecard. Your only job is to play and have fun. Ill tell you a little secret: Thats what professional working artists really do, play and have fun. I know this for a fact because thats what I do!

Some hints about how to use this book:

• Dont worry if you dont have exactly whats listed; use what you can find and afford.
• Dont obsess about making a perfect painting. Consider that the process of working is as valuable as the end result, the product.
• Take these ideas and expand on them, change them, reinvent them.
• Do lots of stuff. Whenever you find yourself with a spare twenty minutes, whip out a small painting or collage!
• Dont judge what you do. Just make stuff.

Every endeavor has its own set of tools and rules and its own specific gear. If you are going to build a house, you need a hammer and nails. You also need a blueprint. Finally, you will need some lumber and maybe a window or two.

For artists, and in particular acrylic painters, we need tools like color, line, shape and so on. Our rules are based on balance, composition, emphasis and the like. Our gear is paint, canvas and brushes.

In this chapter I will boil these seemingly complex ideas down to a few nuggets. These will work to get you started if youre a beginner or perhaps give you a new viewpoint if youre a seasoned veteran. You can spend a lot of time and read a lot of books that will go into great detail on any one of these subjects. Id like to suggest you get the gist of what you need here. And then? Trust your gut. When its all said and done, you really have to like what youre doing, regardless of what the rules say.

Color is just delicious, it is my world, it starts everything going. I spread it on my palette and I feel my creative juices flowing, it lights my life. Lynn Glenn

ITALIA XXV

Tesia Blackburn

Acrylic on Canvas

30" 30" (76cm 76cm)

The six guiding principles of design:

• Balance
• Rhythm/repetition
• Emphasis/focal point
• Proportion
• Unity/harmony
• Contrast

The design principles are your pals, your best buddies. Get to know them and they will serve you well. Theyre also great for troubleshooting. Cant figure out why that painting feels a tad off? Check the list of design principles and see where youve gone off track. Is the painting balanced? Too balanced? Does it have a good rhythm? Maybe it lacks unity or harmony.

Again, you will know if you trust your gut. Humans are amazing. We can tell if something isnt quite right. Have you ever sat down in a booth in a restaurant and the table was too far away to eat comfortably? Or perhaps you were thinking about buying a chair, but once you sat in it, you found your feet didnt touch the ground. These things didnt feel quite right because of poor design. And you instinctively knew it. How? Because all good design is based on the best design of allhuman beings.