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Consistency?
Hi Allan,
It's been three months since you posted your question about consistency. I've just found your post and wonder what the last three months have shown you? Have you decided to make an effort to be more consistent?
I am "consistency challenged" to say the least. I started out painting still lifes, which was a good way for me to learn about paint, then moved to portraits. Portraits are exhausting and having the pressure of pleasing a client wasn't fun. So off into the world of landscapes I went. I explored quite a few 'styles', moving from more representational to more abstract in my landscapes. I've since pulled back from the abstraction.
If you look at the work on my website, your head will probably spin from all the different types of paintings. If I do decide to continue with portraiture, I'll need to clean up the website and make it more focused on portraits. I do realize that.
My landscape teacher told me something I won't forget. We were talking about a recognizable style and he said that "if someone can recognize your work from across the room, that's worth a million bucks". Okay, maybe not a million, but worth a lot.
I think my "style" changes when I try to get looser with my paintings. I do have to make a concentrated effort not to paint too many details. But, really, is that a "style" change? Probably not.
After my brief hiatus from portrait painting, I'm back to painting portraits. I've decided the worry of meeting the clients expectations is outweighed by the sheer joy I get from painting people and the joy the client feels when they get the portrait. So far they're always thrilled with the portrait, it's just worrisome for me. Maybe I can work on getting over that!
I do think we all have a unique style, without even trying. An instructor once told me to just work at making a good painting and your style will come. Which is another way of saying we all have an inate style.
Anyway, I thought you brought up an interesting topic and now I'm wondering what you have decided to do, if anything (!), about being more consistent.
Joan
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