Will Barnet, Great Grandmother

As a teacher, Will Barnet urged his students to consider the figure as a source of abstract inspiration, advising them not to copy the model, but to infuse the forms in their paintings with emotion through composition and the formal elements of design. His paintings reflected those aims as well. For example, in his painting Great Grandmother, he avoids naturalism, form modeling, and conventional perspective. He relied instead on flattened shapes, compressed space, and a pattern of light and dark shapes to structure his painting and make it come alive.       

As a figure painter, anatomy is very important to me. But painting anatomically correct figures isn’t. Like Will Barnet, I try to capture emotion and mood in my figure paintings. But regardless of subject matter, the excitement of seeing shapes, values, and colors come alive on the picture surface is the facet of painting that captivates me the most. 

To get the sense of aliveness that I’m after, here are some of the things I look for – both consciously and unconsciously when I put together my figure paintings………

Donna Zagotta, The Morning Commute

I begin with a search for an interesting “idea” to explore, and my ideas are usually found by closely observing the body language of the people I paint. I look for something that gives me a “been there, done that” feeling. Because I usually work from photos I’ve taken of strangers, that recognition factor tells me that very likely we’ve all “been there, done that”, and the feeling I’m experiencing is probably both personal and universal. The emotion or feeling that I’ve identified becomes the idea or concept for my painting. However, I keep everything loose and open until the very end and the painting is completed because my ideas and concepts very often evolve or change as I work on my paintings.   

Next comes the compositional stage. In numerous drawings and tracings, I translate my subject into flat, more or less stylized shapes. At this stage of the preliminary composition process, emphasizing or exaggerating body language, deciding on the figure’s size and placement on the picture surface, how much environment to include, and designing an exciting pattern of lights and darks are my most important considerations.  

And, finally, I play with color – sometimes in small preliminary studies, sometimes not. Either way, I find the colors for my paintings improvisationally, searching for the “right” hues, values, and intensities by putting colors down and responding. If I like what I see, the colors stay. If I don’t like what I see, I adjust, remove, repaint, or change them until I do. Along with color, I play with line, texture, and pattern to create a sense of rhythm and movement, working everything until I feel that my image is “sizzling” with emotion and feeling. This stage, along with the others I’ve just mentioned, may take many trial and error attempts over a long period of time before I deem my figure painting complete.    

Happy Painting!

Lately I’ve noticed how beginning a new painting frequently brings up feelings of self-doubt and fear. Can I turn this subject into a satisfying painting? Do I have what it takes? Will it work or will I just be wasting my time? Because these questions can never be answered in advance, I often hesitate and start stalling.  My favorite stalling statics include shopping, reading, and spending time researching pet topics (happily, I can report that my stalling tactics rarely involve cleaning house!). 

I’ve noticed a few other things, too. Trying to resist doubt and fear doesn’t work, and trying to make them go away doesn’t work either. So, because stalling can lead to big-time procrastination and become a major obstacle to getting my work done, I’ve begun to anticipate that doubt and fear will definitely be showing up when I choose my next subject to paint. Rather than trying to resist or ignore them, I’ve decided to step out of the way, acknowledge their presence, accept them, and just let them be.  

Recently I had shelves installed on the wall across from my painting table so that I could display photos of some of my favorite completed paintings and paintings in progress. This has turned out to be a great source of support and encouragement when the inevitable happens and doubt and fear show up at my studio door. Now, when I start feeling anxious and want to abandon ship in favor of greener pastures, all I have to do is look up and I’m reminded that I’ve been there before and that these doubts and fears are natural and will probably always be stage one of my personal creative process. Looking at my wall of paintings instantly puts me in touch with the confident part of me who struggled, persisted, failed, recovered, and went on to create some paintings that I really do love. Of course, I have to actually be working at my painting table for all that to happen, and showing up and working on my work is the best way I know of to partner doubt and fear with self-confidence, because when I’m completely and passionately engaged with my painting, my paints, and the creative process itself, doubt and fear seem to disappear all on their own. 

Happy Painting!    

Is there one habit or practice that really makes a difference between getting your creative work done and not getting it done?

Yes. The most important practice an artist can institute is a morning creativity practice where she carves out some time bright and early every day, five, six or seven days a week, to work on her novel, practice her instrument, or get right to her painting studio. There are three important reasons to institute a morning creativity practice. The first reason is the most obvious one—you’ll be getting a lot of creative work done! Even if only a percentage of what you do pleases you, by virtue of working regularly you’ll start to create a body of work. That’ll feel good! A second reason is that you get to make use of your “sleep thinking”—you get to make use of whatever your brain has been thinking about all night. Create first thing and capture those thoughts that have been percolating all night! The third reason is that, by creating first thing, you’ll have the experience of making some meaning on that day and the rest of the day can pass in a half-meaningless way and you won’t get depressed! Getting right to your creative work first thing each day provides you with a daily shot of meaningfulness. That’s a lot of goodness to get from one practice.

I’d like you to chat a bit about what you call the “freedom key.” What sort of freedom are you talking about?

Many different sorts—let’s look at just one, the freedom not be perfect; or, to put it slightly differently, the freedom to make big mistakes and messes. Not so long ago I got an email from a painter in Rhode Island.  She wrote, “I’m a perfectionist and I want my artwork to be perfect. Sometimes this prevents me from getting started on a new project or from finishing the one I’m currently working on. I think to myself: If it’s not going to be the best, why bother to do it? How do I move past these feelings?” One way to get out of this trap is to move from a purely intellectual understanding that messes are part of the creative process to a genuine visceral understanding of that truth.  You need to feel that freedom in your body. As an intellectual matter, every artist knows that some percentage of her work will prove less than stellar, especially if she is taking risks with subject matter or technique.  But accepting that obvious truth on a feeling level eludes far too many creative and would-be creative people. They want to “perfect” things in their head before turning to the canvas or the computer screen and a result they stay in their head and never get started. You have to feel free to show up and make a big mess—only then will good things start happening!

Another key that interested me is what you call the “relationship key.” What sorts of relationships did you have in mind and what can an artist do to improve his relationship skills?

All sorts of relationships! And relationships in the arts are frequently very complicated. You may be very friendly with a fellow painter and also quite envious of her. You may actively dislike a gallery owner or a collector but decide that he is too valuable to cast aside, maybe because he is your only advocate or your only customer. You may respect your editor’s opinions but despise the rudeness with which she delivers them. There may be no such thing as a genuinely straightforward relationship anywhere in life but relationships in the arts are that much more complicated and shadowy. The main improvement an artist can make is to actually think about the matter! You can decide how you want to be in relationships but only if you actively decide. You get to decide if you want to be honest and straightforward even if others aren’t, if you want to be polite and diplomatic even if others aren’t, if you want to be quiet and calm even if others are stirring the pot and making dramas. It may not prove easy to be the person you want to be at all times and in all situations, especially since the marketplace has a way of throwing us off our game, but you can nevertheless hold the intention to try your darnedest to be the “you” you would most like to be. This takes thought and preparation!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this interview with America’s foremost creativity coach, Eric Maisel. Creating is often difficult and challenging. The hard work involved with producing new work, managing personality traits, and maintaining a satisfying personal life are things we artists deal with on a daily basis. In this new book, Making Your Creative Mark, Eric Maisel offers solutions to these and many other issues that artists face and provides insight that will help you create and manage a meaningful life in the arts. This book is a definite must read for all artists!

Happy Painting!  

One of my favorite authors has just released a brand new book – and I am very pleased to be part of the blog tour that is introducing it! Making Your Creative Mark is the latest book by Eric Maisel, and it’s a must read for artists who are serious about creating a successful and fulfilling life in the arts. 

This is the 13th book by Eric Maisel that I’ve read. Over the years, the insights I’ve discovered in his books have been an enormous help to me in learning how to honor my creative life and how to deal with the daunting challenges that every artist must navigate and negotiate on a daily basis.

In Making Your Creative Mark, Eric Maisel addresses nine issues of vital importance to anyone who creates or wants to create. In the book’s introduction he writes, “Most likely you know how often you stall, block, and give up. Most likely you understand that the art marketplace is a difficult place. Most likely you understand how often time gets away from you, how often you fret about whether what you’re attempting matters to anyone, including yourself, and how often your discipline eludes you. You can name the challenges. But what to do about them? Mastering the nine keys in this book will help you tremendously.”

Here is the first of a two-part interview with Eric Maisel about his new book, Making Your Creative Mark. Enjoy!

                   An Interview with Eric Maisel, Part 1  

Why do you think someone would want to gamble everything on a life in the arts when it’s so hard to make it as an artist?

Human beings crave the psychological experience of meaning. We want that almost more than we want anything else. There are maybe a score of ways that human beings regularly generate that psychological experience: through service, through relationships, by excelling, by seizing new experiences – and by creating. Creating is one of our prime meaning opportunities and for many people the most important. Therefore folks who decide to devote themselves to an art discipline aren’t making some sort of calculation about risk versus reward. What they are doing is honoring their need to make their own meaning. If you look at a life in the arts as a smart career choice it doesn’t make that much sense; if you look at it as a tremendous meaning opportunity, it makes perfect sense.

You’ve organized the book around nine keys. Can you highlight one or two of them for us?

I start with the “mind key” because I believe that getting a grip on our thoughts and doing a better job of thinking thoughts that actually serve us are supremely important skills to master. Most people do a poor job of “minding their mind” and choosing to think in ways that serve them. It is a completely common practice for people to present themselves with thoughts that amount to self-sabotage and to refuse to dispute those thoughts once they arise. If people did a better job of “minding their mind” by noticing what they were thinking and by making an effort to replace defensive and unproductive thoughts with less defensive and more productive thoughts, they would live in less pain and they would give themselves a much better chance of living the life they dream of living. This is doubly true for artists who can doubt their talent, take criticism too seriously, find a hundred ways to avoid the hard working of creating, and more. There’s really nothing more important than getting a grip on your own thoughts!

You present what you call “the stress key.” What are some of your top tips for reducing the stress that a life in the arts produces?

Life produces stress, the artistic personality produces additional stress, creating produces even more stress, and living the artist’s life is the topper! An artist must learn how to deal with all of these stressors—and how to deal with them effectively. There are many tactics an artist can try—the key is actually trying some! You might try “writing your stress away.” Research reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that writing about stressful situations and experiences can reduce your stress levels – and can actually lead to improvements in immune functioning, fewer visits to the doctor, and an increased sense of well-being. You can reframe a given demand as an opportunity, turning your “stressful” upcoming gallery show into a golden opportunity. You can have a fruitful conversation with yourself and answer the following four questions: 1. What are my current stressors? 2. What unhealthy strategies am I currently employing to deal with these stressors? 3. What healthy strategies am I currently employing to deal with these stressors? 4. What new stress management strategies would I like to learn? An artist needs to honor the reality of stress and make plans for dealing with it!

• Eric Maisel is the author of Making Your Creative Mark and twenty other creativity titles. America’s foremost creativity coach, he is widely known as a creativity expert who coaches individuals and trains creativity coaches through workshops and keynotes nationally and internationally. He has blogs on the Huffington Post and Psychology Today and writes a column for Professional Artist Magazine. Visit him online at http://www.ericmaisel.com.

Happy Painting!

Comments from Peggy and Diane on my last post about Will Barnet got me thinking about how deeply ingrained some things are within each of us. I was so envious when Peggy said that her dad showed her books of Russian Icons when she was a little girl and that those paintings continue to influence her current work. As a little girl, I believed that good drawing meant accurate drawing and coloring within the lines. Consequently it has taken me many years to get past that kind of thinking and to understand that a drawing doesn’t have to explain a subject, it can also be a spontaneous and imaginative response to a subject.  

These days my creative process still begins with an accurate drawing. That step satisfies the part of me that still holds the belief that a drawing’s quality depends largely on how accurately a subject is rendered. But then I go one step further and put a sheet of tracing paper over my initial drawing and work hard to stylize and personalize the shapes in that drawing. I keep doing tracing on top of tracing until I find the kind of creative and imaginative shapes that I’m looking for. Many tracings are usually generated before I feel ready to begin my painting.      

One of the things that fascinated me about Will Barnet was discovering that in preparation for his painting, Mother and Child (a painting of his wife and daughter,shown above), he generated over a hundred drawings over the course of an entire year before he began his painting. In early drawings, he concentrated on abstracting the shapes of the figures into “angular components within a design.” In a second group of drawings, he eliminated much of the environment surrounding the figures and concentrated on softening shapes and finding more fluidity in the compositions. Later drawings in the series are so abstract that no longer do we recognize any reference to the two figures. And I was most fascinated to discover that these drawings were done on tracing paper! And, like me – he did tracing over tracing until he found the drawing that satisfied him (three of those tracings are shown above). I love discovering personal connections like this to my favorite artists!

Happy Painting!

Will Barnet

I had my first encounter with Will Barnet’s stunning figure paintings many years ago. Before I had a computer and access to the Internet, I discovered his painting, Mother and Child, on the cover of a trade paperback. There was no indication of who the artist was, but the painting blew me away and became one of my favorites even though I didn’t know who painted it. 

Mother and Child by Will Barnet, 1961

In the late 1990’s, I made a decision to move away from descriptive realism and into the territory of more creative and expressive painting. Looking to redefine my artistic direction, I delved into Modernism and the art periods that came after -searching for inspiration, fresh ideas, and a new visual language. I came upon Mother and Child again, along with Will Barnet’s other paintings and writings, and discovered that he was a living, breathing American artist who was still working daily. 

Madonna and Child, Berlinghiero ca. 1228

Digging into his writings, I was amazed to find that it wasn’t the Modern School of Paris that influenced his abstract figure paintings like Mother and Child, it was pre-Rennaissance, Byzantine art. He said that paintings like Berlinghiero’s Madonna and Child, painted in 1228, taught him about the flat picture surface and what kind of language to use to put together a painting. He talked about the painting’s simplicity, pointing out that it is really a flat painting with no real modeling, no real attempt to create any illusion, and how the flat surface has its own space; it doesn’t come forward or fall back – the space is compressed. 

I had never been particularly attracted to pre-Renaissance or Renaissance art before, but reading Will Barnet’s words changed my thinking and my vision, helping me to understand how important it is to connect our work to art history and how much we can learn from our artistic ancestors. And his concepts of space, his idea of reinterpreting nature in painting terms, his idea that flat forms and their interactions can function as substitutes or equivalents for ideas and emotions, his idea of abstract thinking as a new visual language – were ideas that opened my eyes and helped me learn how to see subject matter and the flat picture surface in new and exciting ways. 

Will Barnet held that great art was simple, dignified, and profound. His art is all of that and more. And from everything I’ve read about him, I think I can safely say that the same thing can be said for the man himself. Although I never met him, I feel I know him through his beautiful paintings and because he so generously shared his thoughts, feelings, and ideas with the world. 

Happy Painting!

A few weeks ago, I asked for nominations of your favorite art blogs so that I could create a list of art blogs to watch in 2013. I encourage you to check out the links below. Thank you to everyone who sent in nominations. I’ve had fun checking out some of these new sites and I hope you’ll find some interesting new art blogs to enjoy and learn from this year as well.    

22 ART BLOGS TO WATCH IN 2013 (in no particular order):  

http://loriannsignori.blogspot.com/

http://roosschuring.blogspot.com/

http://www.camilleprzewodek.com/

http://deboralstewart.blogspot.com/ 

http://terrymiura.blogspot.com/

http://carolmarine.blogspot.com/

http://www.urbansketchers.org/

http://lisapressman.blogspot.com/

http://onedrawingaday.com/

http://illustrationart.blogspot.com/

http://makingamark.blogspot.com/

http://myrnawacknov.blogspot.com/

http://randalldavidtipton.blogspot.com/

http://judywise.blogspot.com/

http://thecolorist.blogspot.com/

http://melizabethchapman.blogspot.com/

http://joycewashorsdailypaintings.blogspot.com/

http://www.artforthesoulofit.com/

http://maggielathamstudios.blogspot.co.uk/

http://rebeccacrowellart.blogspot.com/

http://stephiebutler.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.steveflemingartiststudio.com/blog/

Happy Painting!

Well, it’s time for my fourth annual Art Blogs to Watch!  I would like to draw attention to some of the great art blogs that are out there. My hope is to create and share a list of art blogs that add value in some significant way to the artist’s journey.  

I encourage you to send me a list of or links to your favorite art blogs. The only rule is that your own blog can’t be on your list! Deadline for submission is Monday, March 18. I will compile the lists and put together a list of 2013 Art Blogs to Watch. I think we will all benefit from this project!

E-mail your list or links to: donnazagotta@chartermi.net and write ”Blogs” on the subject line.

Happy Painting!

I am pleased to announce that I have an article in the current (April) issue of Watercolor Artist magazine! In the article, titled “Don’t Forsake Opaque“, I share some ideas for how to put together a personal working palette that will allow you to paint bold, delicious, high-intensity watercolor paintings, how to relate manufactured tube watercolors to the artist’s color wheel, how to understand and use the various characteristics of manufactured tube watercolors, and how to use the three properties of color: hue, value, and intensity to create bold and expressive paintings. 

I also share tips and ideas for working with opaque watercolor, a technique that easily allows for changes and corrections during the painting process. Painting with opaque watercolor can remove some of the technical difficulties and fears associated with traditional transparent watercolor painting and allow you to be more confident, free, and spontaneous.   

The April issue of Watercolor Artist magazine is available in bookstores now. Or you can order a digital or hard copy online HERE

Happy Painting!

                                            Holding Her Near by Donna Zagotta                                       

It’s great to have some good news to share occasionally!  This time, I have two pieces of good news to share: 

My painting, Holding Her Near just received an award in the Fallbrook Art Center’s 4th Annual Signature American Watercolor Exhibition.

Also, I just received word that my first workshop of the year is full with a waitlist.

BTW, if you have been thinking of taking one of my workshops, this just might be the year to do that because after 2013 I will be limiting the number of workshops I teach so that I can spend more time in my studio.  

I’m very excited indeed to share my good news with all of you, and I feel very blessed about all the wonderful things that have come my way. 

Check out my workshop schedule, which is posted on the right.   

And you can see the Fallbrook Art Center’s 4th Annual Signature American Watercolor Exhibition here.

Happy Painting!