{"id":3790,"date":"2015-09-20T09:28:57","date_gmt":"2015-09-20T13:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dawnbanning.com\/newsblog\/?p=3790"},"modified":"2015-09-20T09:28:57","modified_gmt":"2015-09-20T13:28:57","slug":"the-artist-hopeful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dawnbanning.com\/newsblog\/the-artist-hopeful\/","title":{"rendered":"The Artist Hopeful"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DSC03117\"<\/a>
\nNew”Autumn Trees” 8×10 oil on board avail for purchase<\/p>\n

Austin, creator of my favoured ‘Birthday Candles\u2019 painting
\nis becoming a frustrated Artist, his Mom confessed.
\nYou may remember my friend Austin from a previous post, here<\/a>.
\nAustin isn\u2019t alone in his frustration.
\nThese days my mailbox is filled with similar complaints, from professionals, hobbyists and Artist hopefuls.
\nComplaints are typically followed by
\n\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t understand. (Yes I do.)
\n\u201cYou have natural talent\u201d (it isn\u2019t a secret how I feel about that word, and No).
\n\u201cIt probably came easy to you even as a child.\u201d
\nNoooooo.
\nI have proof.
\n\"dawn<\/a>
\nIf that didn\u2019t convince you, this will.
\nWe had a babysitter who loved to draw horses.
\nI would sneak out of bed to see her drawing, only to be scooted back before I could watch her process.
\nHow did she do it? I tried and tried.
\n\"DSC01247\"<\/a>
\nHorses were a favourite subject of mine, among people, landscapes, animals and my dog.
\n\"card\"<\/a>\"child<\/a>
\nearliest record of my art ~ a card for my parents.<\/p>\n

I shouldn\u2019t show these publicly.
\nBesides making point, they\u2019re funny.
\nI wasn\u2019t a born artist, but I was tenacious.<\/p>\n

By Grade 12, I could draw a decent horse.
\n\"DSC03145\"<\/a>
\ncoloured charcoal- horse<\/p>\n

I taught myself looking at picture books and horses, making a ton of mistakes.
\nBy high school, I had shown improvement on the other subjects too.
\n\"Scan\"<\/a>
\nI didn\u2019t have art in school until Grade 11.
\nThe Grade 11 art teacher told me \u201cNever study. They could ruin you. You\u2019re a natural talent\u201d.
\nShe had no idea I had been working on it for over a decade.
\n\"sunfire<\/a>
\nNew 12×16 “Sunfire” oil on canvas<\/p>\n

I assured Austin\u2019s Mom frustration is a good sign.
\nIt means he wants to improve. Austin has great passion for creating.
\nWe all have the fever of frustration, it\u2019s a myth professional artists are immune.
\nThe key is, don\u2019t give up. <\/p>\n

My friend Dayna of the Pottery Cupboard<\/a> says
\n\u201cI have spent 12 years in the studio, every day. The first five were spent crying\u201d.<\/p>\n

In an instant gratification society often we underestimate the work & time involved to excel.
\n The craft is honoured when we recognize the dedication necessary to become a master.
\n~
\nNote. Along with the talent myth, another fable exists: once an Artist is accomplished, art is an easy road from thereon.
\nIt\u2019s never easy.
\nLike athletes we have to practice. Muscle memory applies to Artists, too. We need to use and improve all our skills<\/strong> or we lose them.
\nArt is a lifelong learning process, of which I am a joyful student.
\n~
\np.s Austin\u2019s painted birdhouse is a treasure in my studio. He began by painting the inside- for the birds of course. When his Mom encouraged him to paint the outside, he added \u2018snow\u2019. Both signs of a great artist indeed.
\n\"DSC03167\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New”Autumn Trees” 8×10 oil on board avail for purchase Austin, creator of my favoured ‘Birthday Candles\u2019 painting is becoming a frustrated Artist, his Mom confessed. You may remember my friend Austin from a previous post, here. Austin isn\u2019t alone in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-work","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dawnbanning.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dawnbanning.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dawnbanning.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dawnbanning.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dawnbanning.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3790"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.dawnbanning.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3997,"href":"http:\/\/www.dawnbanning.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3790\/revisions\/3997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dawnbanning.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dawnbanning.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dawnbanning.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}