‘Winter Sunset’ is a painting that was created under inspiration. The scene that was used to make the composure grabbed me serendipitously during the day prior to me starting the artwork. A series of photographs were taken, and sketches performed immediately after the scene grabbed me and these were then taken into my motivations for creating art the next day. The painting was then worked on slowly and intuitively throughout the week until its completion.
This painting meets my definition of pure art because it was created for the sake of creation, it had no script and adhered to no predefined style or technique. The outcome of the painting was not the driving force for the painting and therefore the painting came into existence through feelings and intuition.
Predefined techniques and styles encountered during our lives set up unique predispositions to what is considered good and bad. As we produce art these predispositions work in opposition to intuition and feeling and create a fear complex that inhibits us from pure creation. Fear of making a mistake, fear of messing up what you have created, and fear of making something bad create conservatism and block pure art.
You may think that courage is the antidote to fear, however, when it comes to art you can go much further than courage because having courage indicates that you still have fear, and if you still have fear it means that you are holding on to a predefined concept of good. To make pure art you need to let go of the outcome of the art. To do this you’re going to need to let go of many of the constructs that society has built. Let go of time, value, especially monetary value, and most importantly let go of what other people think for it is a road to ruin. To make real art, pure art, you must listen to your inner self, your true self. If you don’t have a good idea of what you want to make then just start making something and listen to how you feel about it. You can use a process of selection whereby you stop making things that you don’t like making and if you persist with this process, you will be left with something that you enjoy doing, and you will make something that you like making.