Time and Art

It's Only A Matter of Time

It has been about a year since I started this palm tree inspired painting.  I usually complete a painting before moving on to the next, but this was painted in preparation for a larger commissioned work of the same subject matter so I could work out the desired palette, shapes and composition.  After the commission was complete I started another commissioned work, so this particular painting was set aside but not forgotten.  Now a year later it is done.

Have you ever noticed exhibited works that show several years as the time period in which the work was created? This would be one of those and it would show 2011-2012 which is a little misleading since it was really only one year.   So, did it really take me one or two years to complete this painting?  Maybe just my lifetime, so far that is.  

Artists are frequently asked how long it takes to create and complete a painting.  This is an interesting question with a couple different answers.  One of the answers would be the time spent in front of the easel while working on the painting, and this is an answer I never give since I don't log or track those hours.  Or the artist could answer with the weeks, months or years between the beginning and completion of the painting.  A better answer is that it took a life time, or at least all of the experience and living that has brought the artist to this point in her life.

I firmly believe that it would be impossible to create this particular work if I had not created everything that came before this.  It took all the looking and observing, the successes and failures that have come before.   All of this grows, changes and morphs the ability of the artist to see and interpret, lay down her ideas, and work with the medium.

Three Date Palms

48" x 30"

2500.

It is also interesting that this question is asked.  It appears that sometimes the question is posed as a conversational tool and then sometimes the query is due to pure curiosity.  Regardless of the reason, the time isn't that important.  It is the quality and execution of the work, what appeals to the viewer in the work,  that is more important.  Time is a vehicle to get from beginning to end.  It's how that time was spent and what was done during the passing of time to create the work.  

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