Alain Briot said:
"I only use the terms art and "ART"
Then was Van Gogh making art or ART? Same thing. You're splitting hairs aren't you ;-)
"Are you specifying that intent must be before, during or after the picture is taken?"
It doesn't matter as long as it is during the act of creation.
"is study absolutely necessary?"
In my view yes. Otherwise how do you do it? By luck, happenstance, the muses visiting you and you just acting randomly? You have to know what you are doing, you have to develop your skills, you have to understand the medium you are working on, your motivation, what moves you to create and one thousand other things. And how else do you develop this knowledge if not by study either on your own or with others? And what about business, marketing and salesmanship? I don't know about you, but personally I wasn't born with that knowledge and had to study to acquire it.
Alain
Alain,
Thanks again for challenging my point of view! Here is my take.
Van Gogh was only making art. That, I believe without any hesitation, was his obsession. His brother and agent knew about potential real world transformation of art into
currency. That is entirely different and I call that art as currency "ART"
That is not splitting hairs. ART in "my" clear definition means "equivalent to some market value" in gold, sterling, US$ or whatever.
Art is art and we would agree in many cases, no doubt!
To the subject of the need for study: I agree, most of us ordinary folk need to study, strive and learn whether it is the art of art or the art of commerce.
For myself, by example, I knew nothing of any selling or merchandising capability. We simply knew no one that did such a thing! That was not in my nature, culture nor vocabulary. I've had to take considerable pains to learn such things!
Some few, however, unlike us, are "naturals" in art, music and in commerce.
As if from nowhere, a savant can take a Rubik's Cube and whiz around the blocks and get order from disorder in about 6 strokes, whereas trained mathematicians, might be stuck for hours.
All, or almost all the Great Masters were apprenticed many long years to study their art, to make faces real and glass sparkle with each facet of cut crystal. In this your statements, concerning training, are entirely correct.
Still, some children have, from infancy, been able to paint expressively as soon as they could hold a brush! Some prodigies play the piano by ear with no instruction. It is just natural territory.
Others grow up in cultures where everyone trades and bargains and sells, has connections here and there and have a natural eye for new ideas. Others have no special training, just trader’s natural genius. They absorb skills.
Two cases in particular. One, an illiterate man: couldn't write his name and no bank would give him a loan for his start up tire store.
Anyway, he sold tires. He was so good, that he bought up all the adjacent lots and had the largest tire business in town.
The very bank that refused him a loan, because he was illiterate, invited him on their board. Why? He was a born "natural" entrepraneur and businessman and they recognised that as fact!
Another, young man, I personally know, rebelled against working in the family fish store! The son started to cook fish upstairs (no training, mind you, just sense of taste, herbs and judgment) and soon the lines were stretched around the block, people waiting hours, paying in advance to eat at "Legal Seafood".
Check it out! A multi-million dollar company with stores all over!
In each case, the acumen and skills were innate and the environment allowed that to flourish.
In art, it is not much different. Only that “to paint in oils”, for example one has to know that particular medium, as you have correctly stated.
However, an artist with talent can do all this by trial and error. The result will, of course be different.
There are, it is true, technical barriers to be overcome. In photography, one can't give an infant a 1Ds and say, "OK, genius, create!"
Still, give that very same child charcoal and you might be surprised. Further, if that child can indeed work wonders with the charcoal, later on, for certain, he'll have no problem mastering the camera too.
For sure, if that young man would walk with you, watch you and stand by you printing, then the path would be easier. Still, I believe, certain gifted people will absorb the skills, composition, color, texture, tone and more, by themselves, anyway, from the world around them and by just "knowing" that it is something they can do.
So while I entirely agree that technique can be trained, appreciation can be enhanced, and one can be coached to make a facsimile of the art of someone else, natural propensity and facility is perhaps the most important factor!
It doesn't matter what creative person you are talking about: be it artist or market maker, natural talent is the critical ingredient that can't be taught and which can, even without formal instruction lead to some significant degree of success.
And why? Through millions of years of development, particular talents useful for man's mastery of himself and the planet have been selected and imprinted in real brain circuits and patterns of learning and behavior. Certain people are endowed with special versions of this inheritance. These are the "naturals".
For lesser people, like ourselves, we have to study and work so hard to develop our skills. To then be able to sell, as you have done is unusual! As you know I’m a strong fan of your art, your teaching as well as your ability to actually sell! Not many people can, themselves, do all three things well!
However, we must not then believe that study, and even "skill" is of necessity a barrier for the gifted. They do indeed simply absorb from their environment. Then, when they give back, we are moved, stunned, amazed and everything else.
And to Tony, we haven't forgotten your photograph! I will now sit back and let others express their own opinions and guidance for you. I don't want my own penchant for debate to be mistaken for definitions of fact. What I state is merely my own POV.
I am most interested in Alain's advice on your prints and note how privileged we are to have him available for all of us!
Asher