About Talent...
 

According to Andrew Loomis:
"Talent is an urge, an insatiable desire to excel, coupled with indefatigable powers of concentration and production."

What about those guys who don't seem to have any trouble about creating masterpieces?

I would like to know your opinion, forum members, about it.

Here are my theories about "masterpieces" and those who create them.

First, and most obvious, a masterpiece does not know it will be a masterpiece until it is. So, for a masterpiece to be, it has to be started. In short - "Paint."

Second, for every masterpiece created by a master, there are hundreds, if not more, works that will never be "masterpieces" created by the same hand, but whose masterful parts may show up in "the one" - the masterpiece. The synopsis here - "Paint, a lot."

Third, creating anything is trouble, even for a master. What makes a masterpiece is the fact it has been made to look masterfully effortless.

So, to sum it up -

"Painting is hard work, but the more you do it, the task itself becomes automatic, allowing the mind to create genius."

One day, I will lay down a piece of paint that will be the piece that carries me from the mundane to the extraordinary. One day, I will be a master. Until then, I will paint.

Thanks Kimber,
It's always nice to know that more people have the same point of view.
I believe there's no over night success.

Kimber,

I think your "theories" are spot on - and beautifully put. I'm going to print them out and hang it in my studio to read every day.

Thanks for sharing!

Supreme words of wisdom, Kimber. You are just what the doctor ordered!

Claudemir, I sure am hoping to meet someone who can reveal the elusive secret to talent and the easy masterpiece. I sure hope to not be disillusioned.

Garth

Yes, I agree!

I recall taking a class with Harley Brown, who said something to the effect that talent is about 15 % of the equation. All the rest is solid training and countless hours of hard work.

Not unlike writing, music, acting, voice...

I actually feel that the idea of inborn "talent" has pretty much nothing to do with art success. (I don't think I was born with any!) If you can see and hold a brush, you have all the talent you need to become a good painter. The rest is persistence, practice, patience, etc., and you need those in very large measures.

Kimber, I agree and I think you expressed your thoughts superbly.

For me, talent means a natural tendency for some thing, act or thought process. In no way do I consider it the most important criteria for a masterpiece.

A masterpiece as I understand it, is a piece of work that requires no more or no less work. It is the best as it is.

I have seen many masterpieces on this website. I am looking forward to meeting as many masters and future masters as I can this May and hope that I get the oppportunity to glean as much as I can from each of you.

Until then I will paint for paint's sake.

Well, I think I've been misunderstood...
I never intended to say that I think it is easy to make a masterpiece.

If it was so, I would be a Master, but I'm a poor, simple student.

But it seems to me that some artists are not worried about what people think about their art, once I heard Manabu Mabi ( a brazilian painter whose works reached about $100.000 during his life !!!) saying that he just painted what he wanted and set a price, he didn

Ps:
 

The image above is from the Guinness Worl Records website.