What Makes an Artist

By

B.D. Adams

I’ve written a few articles for “The Hanging Image” ... and, I hope to write some more. However, just so many articles ... just so many words ... can be written to entice you, the reader, to purchase art for wall decorating, be it paintings or photography.

Am I giving up on my previous endeavors? Not on your life! I shall remain determined to talk home decor until the proverbial end of time ... or something along that line.

However, I do feel a need to expand on the creators of art ... what makes an artist! We haven’t touched on the actual, human side of art. What entices one to pick up a brush and palette with delightful colors to put paint to canvas, or to discover that old, dusty camera in that cluttered closet, to see if it still worked!

I think that I can divulge the secret that visual artists are created by what they see ... mostly by their desires to share what they see with the rest of the world!

So many artists, since when I was at a fairly young age, inspired, motivated and/or frustrated the daylights out of me, at times. All artists can attest to being inspired by another artist, at some point. Most every artist has had another artist who they admire ... who they emulate, to even a small degree.

Who was one of my inspirational artists? Well, let me tell you about him first. He was someone who had such a delicate eye for color and light ... a sensitive handling of human expression, as well as his treatment of nature’s simplicity.

I was in my late teens when I first learned of him. He was already an accomplished artist of using tempera paints in earth-tones with his definite brush style, but I was still a neophyte to the art world. I just knew that I liked what I saw.

When he was a young man, his habitats were divided between Pennsylvania and Maine, as when he grew-up. He was born in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania and maintained the Mid-west domicile for his family’s permanent residence. Now, that I reside in New Hampshire, I definitely understood why the family had chosen Cushing, Maine, for their spring and summer living when he was a child, and then he continued the migration when he was an adult.

This artist’s style was “new” to the critics of the 1930’s and 40’s. It was called “realistic” and “abstract.” His work will be debated forever.

What I admired the most about his works were how his models appeared so relaxed as

he drew or painted. Especially, the paintings of his females! These weren’t photos ... they were tempera paintings. The model would have to pose for hours for him to truly capture what he saw.

What I saw in his “people paintings” was what I wanted to emulate in my photographic portraits. To a small degree ... I think I did that. When one is inspired by a master, one will try to move heaven and earth to accomplish this skill ... this talent!

Maybe the reader knows of whom I’m writing. Perhaps, it’s still a bit of a mystery. If I have tickled your curious nature, then I feel I have accomplished my reason for this article.

However, dear reader, please look for the next article, in a month or so, to establish for yourself if you are a knowledgeable art student. Also, if you’d like to email “The Hanging Image” to offer your guess about whom my inspirational artist was/is ... then please, email away. After I divulge who the artist is, in the next article, I will acknowledge who emailed with their guesses. And, fear not ... I will only use email names, or something to respect the sender’s privacy.

We hope to hear from our readers and visitors!!

TO BE CONTINUED