Why paint?

I have been creating art for 42 years. In that time, I have worked with many different medias. For a long time I was content to use pencil and pen ink to create drawings. The mastery of rendering form in light and shade was for quite a while enough.

With the advent of the computer I began applying colour to my art work in both in the virtual realm and from without. The freedom that I felt working in the virtual world was incredible! I could change anything I wanted at any time. I could also add and remove things at will. It was amazing, a revelation really...

For many years I utilized the skills that I'd learned in creating artwork on the computer to make a living as a graphic illustrator. I found this work to be quite engaging and fulfilling for a time. However, I eventually began to feel a yearning for a deeper connection with my art and it's apprehenders. This desire is what eventually drove me to study painting in oil.

When I first started painting in oils in 2007 I found that many of the skills that I had acquired through a lifetime of creating artwork were applicable in this medium. I also learned that many of the things that work for me in the virtual realm did not work well when I was creating artwork by hand using oil paints and a hardwood substrate.

While creating an actual physical painting I am aware that a transference occurs. It seems this is a transference of energy and consciousness between myself the painting and the apprehender of the painting. Speaking only for myself I do not find this occurs when creating artwork digitally and printing it out. As far as I know this phenomenon exists only with original artworks being viewed by a person in the presence of the original art .

This is a fascinating and rewarding endeavour and is an interesting reason to paint as well. There are more reasons to paint of course and perhaps we will go further into those in future blog posts.