Practice makes perfect is the old adage, but I prefer ‘practice makes it better’. From an artistic and creative point of view, I believe, perfection is not desirable. One cannot improve on perfection. Instead if viewed as improved – then, well one can always improve.
Practice though is the hard thing. I know it takes hundreds of hours sometimes, and great discipline to acquire skill (not mastery) over one small aspect of my art.
I love playing and experimenting and there was a time I felt this need to practice again and again was contrary to my art practice. I felt it was something organic, romantic even and that it would evolve. That remains true but learning and studying lots of minute aspects are essential to get better.
Right now, I’m learning heaps about light and colour. I’ve dived into stories about colour. Apparently baker-miller pink has the potential to dull aggression and another shade of pink known as Mountbatten pink was used on warships at one time because they blended into the ocean during dawn and dusk. Also if you look at the sky, the blue effect is caused by the refraction of light and conditions in the atmosphere. If I am painting the sky realistically, I would paint it in varying shades of blue. The effect colour has on our psyche and its properties and applications are something I find quite fascinating
Reflecting on my work, I definitely know practice makes it better. I still have times of pure play and experimentation, not applying learned knowledge but instead figuring out if something will work or not. Right now, its drips across several different works. I’ve used them at different intervals- sometimes at the beginning or end, in between and occasionally a mix of all these. Art is such a vast subject with so many mediums though that mastery will be very hard earned and I’m okay with that.
I like taking detours and meandering through the fields of knowledge- all the while I know my art is getting better.