"Whatever [other artists] have is something needed to do their work -- it wouldn't help you in your work even if you had it. Their magic is theirs. You don't lack it. You don't need it.
"What you need to know about the next [painting] is contained in the last piece. ... Ask your work what it needs, not what you need."
-- Art & Fear, pp34-6.
If learning to ask your painting what it needs sound a tad like pop-psychology for you, put it into art speak: learn to critique your own paintings. To critique it honestly, bluntly, but also constructively.
Image © Marion Boddy-Evans. Licensed to About.com, Inc
Comments
I have just received this book: an incredible revelation! I savour it, little by little, step by step, with my…English dictionary next to me, in order to really understand each word, each sentence. One of the first books which deeply feels, understands the complex mechanisms of an artist , in the face of his own creative ability. A very positive book.