Art Has Many Rules* Rule #1

* But you can easily skip them or break them…

However…

There is a rule that must not be broken…Rule #1…and that is that every brushstroke should be applied to the canvas with thought and with a specific purpose in mind. There should be no randomness in the manner in which paint is applied. Yes, at first, random brushstrokes are admitted…and even encouraged…but when you are finally shaping the structure of the composition, each brushstroke should be carefully thought out and purposely applied. This rule should not be broken because if you do, you will not be putting the thoughts into the composition that it requires. After all, I am assuming that you did put thought, intention, message and emotion into your composition in the first place…

And…

This rule…as all other rules…applies to figurative as well as to abstract art. I have often said that abstract art is the most difficult art to do…to do right…because the reference is internal, therefore it is very important that Rule #1 be followed diligently. Now, if you consider the example I have placed above, you might think that there is a lot of random dripping of paint…unmixed paint right out of the tube…and that little thought was given to where it would end up on the canvas. But you would be wrong. Like I said, the reference…for me, as the one who painted it…is internal, so it can change according to how I «see» this reference within my head. Yet the reproduction of it on the canvas remains faithful to the reference. And please do not confuse this with what the observer may, or may not, see when looking at the painting.

I chose not to give this painting a word title and instead I chose the number 1,2,3, as they, in their union, as a number, 123, stand in place of a philosophical concept, which I will not go into here, but it is meaningful to me. Nothing is random, nothing is intuitive, as intuition does not lead to a finished work of art.

Cheers…