I was looking through old photos the other day, and stumbled across a few photos of my time spent living in Longmont, CO. My wife and I had an apartment on the edge of town and it was an easy 45 minute drive for me to reach Rocky Mountain National Park - where pristine subject matter abounded. But my favorite place to paint while I was in Colorado was not that beautiful national park - instead it was a simple little park with a walking path and stream that was only 5 minutes away from everything - my apartment, the Longmont mall, Target and Walmart. It was a little piece of perfectness for an artist like myself. It has the beautiful St. Vrain stream running through it, and is easily accessible.
From that simple little park I've done and sold many paintings and to this day it's scenes still move me. It was a seemingly limitless well of A+ material that I could go out and get at any time, and because I was so moved by it - it inspired me to create and paint. I had an emotional response to it, and it carried through to what I put down on canvas.
I find it intriguing to think that a physical location helped build my career. What would I have painted if it or I wasn't there? Would I have found something that was its equal? I doubt it, because my entire time there I never found it's equal. But it does bring up these two questions : "Are you moved by what you paint" and "Are you in the right location"?
If you are not moved by what you paint, then that's a good indication that it's time to go on the hunt for something that does move you. I'm not talking just landscapes either... included in this is portraits, figures, and still lifes (I personally believe a Master Artist should be able to paint all of those things with excellence - but that's for another session). Whatever it is that you do paint, be moved by it, let it excite you - if you don't - IT WILL SHOW THROUGH IN YOUR PAINTING. Yes, you may be able to pull off a few that are convincing, but life expressed through brush and paint always shows through to the viewer - and the same with the lack of it.
When I first started out painting - before I decided I wanted to do it professionally - I lived in Coronado, CA - right across the harbor from downtown San Diego. It was a beautiful spot, the ocean was great - but it was not conducive to landscape painting. Every time I wanted to head out of town to paint in the country it was at least an hour drive each way due to traffic. The beaches were - with a couple of exceptions - flat sandy stretches (not really the Rocky Mountains if you know what I mean). I wasn't moved by the city, or it's beaches - because of this, I struggled to find things to paint. It wasn't an exciting thing to find material, it was hard and often times I would come back to my apartment with no painting or one that was mediocre because I felt like I "settled" on something to paint. The end result was a frustrated artist - without the subject matter I needed to progress in my career.
The solution: I moved.
I moved to a place that had abundant subject matter. I moved to a place that held for me hundreds of inspired locations and places. I didn't know it at the time, I was just simply following a leading on the inside of me, but I found an incredible spot that supplied me with endless subject matter. Now, maybe for you the right move would be going from the mountains to the ocean, or to a place where you could be mentored by an artist. If you're interested in being around other artists seek out a place with a good community of artists that you could learn and paint from. Now, please understand, I didn't move to advance my career as an artist, I moved to grow and develop as an artist - but because I grew and developed as an artist, my career grew along with it.
I wanted to paint what MOVED ME and that was mountains... not cities and flat beaches. How many paintings did I paint simply because my subject was beautiful? How many paintings have you painted because your subject or the physical location you're currently in moved you to paint?
Are you in the right location?
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