Heartsong Studio

 

Do you envy a certain artist ?
Do you long for a unique style of your own, perhaps like Monet, Van Gogh, or Kandinski ? Perhaps you feel, like many beginning (and not so new) artists that your work hasn’t a distinct style.

You could try and learn the style of a master you admire. In many art schools, that is an assignment, to copy an artist’s style in order to understand his work better. However it’s only for a time, and not meant for adopting the style.

Suppose you adore the style of Georgia O’Keeffe. If you were highly motivated, and had the time you could, theoretically, go through all the stages of her life with yours. You could live in New York with someone like Stieglitz, and so on, ending up in New Mexico, until possibly, eventually, you just might be able to paint in a very similar vein to Georgia O’Keeffe.

If you succeeded, what would you have gained ? What would the world have gained ? Do we need, or even want another almost Georgia O’Keeffe ?
===========================
What we would have lost is much more crucial, though.
===========================
The world would have been deprived of a very unique contribution. We would never know what your style was like. You wouldn’t have had the time to let yourself develop.
If you had the power of prediction, you would also see the beauty in your own potential, and wouldn’t be envying another.

It’s common for artists to not see the uniqueness of style in their own work.
===========================

Some may try to stick with one subject or one genre, like landscapes or abstracts, all the time, in a false sense of security, or a false sense of style.

You know the story of the ugly duckling; a duck raises all her ducklings with a strange-looking baby in the brood.  She does not know that this ugly ”duckling” will grow into a beautiful swan.

To focus on the end “product” is a hugely limiting factor. Especially when you don’t know what it will be.  But it begins and ends with your focus on yourself, and it short circuits any chance of growth.

Of course, you have to start with an idea, but by coming into a relationship with the idea or subject of your work, it turns into a partnership of you and this other thing. You wouldn’t be alone bearing all the focus. An egg can’t hatch all by itself. Like your style, it requires incubating.
===========================
So how can you find and incubate your style ?
==========================
You can’t hide your true style, in whatever work you do.

No matter whether you work in relation with your subjects, try to copy another’s “style”, or stay boxed in by your perceived need for security, you do have a style. In time, with practice, it will ripen and mature. Others probably can see it clearly, long before you can.

I’ve always resisted being type cast, and change my genre from time to time. But I cannot change my style. Our style develops, matures, enriches, expands over time if we help it, nurture it, accept it.

Style reflects all your life’s experiences so far. You can consciously choose or alter your genre, subject, or medium, but not your style. Just like you can’t choose your parents, nor them you.  If you’re a swan, you’re a swan.  If you’re a crow, you’re a crow.  Every sort of bird has its own unique beauty.

It used to surprise me that others could pick my work out of a group show without reading the captions. Though I could pick out theirs. I think I still hung onto a notion that I worked a certain preferred way.

Eventually it melted as I watched my style evolve and accepted the fact that I wasn’t going to be another Paul Klee, or Picasso, or Kandinsky.

Once you get the first glimpses of what characterizes your style, you can start to accept that that’s the way it is. Eventually you can revel in it.

Though your style can’t be intentionally changed, it does change, like everything. It grows through stages as it matures. It is not selfcentred, it is self-full to become sensitive to your own growth.

It is the responsible thing to do.

Like an egg that needs incubating, it hatches, then needs nurturing.

Eventually your style will learn to take flight, but only if its parent lets it go; only if its parent can take her eyes off it, while giving it the care it needs.

By trusting that it is a worthy thing, a totally unique thing will belong in the world, and be welcome here.

Eventually your style, your work, will learn to fly in flocks without colliding !

Do you really want a second hand style ? Don’t miss the swan for the seagulls.

You are as unique in your style, whatever stage of development, whatever work you do, as anyone else that ever lived. If someone else doesn’t see it, then it’s their undiscerning eye that disappoints, and not your lack of style.

I sometimes think that after recognizing it, it’s accepting our own style which is hardest to do. Friends can help you with this. There are usually others who like your work better than you do. Find them. Use them. They’ll be happy to have helped.

Learning to live into your “style” in all things, is really just about being your true self.

It’s a process of gradually letting go of everything that isn’t you. Not “to live up to” as in social climbing, just easily falling into your style, like into an easy chair, comfortable, at ease.

============================

Was this your style of article ? Or, did it set your beak on edge ?

Drop me a line, if that’s your style.

 

If a friend gave you this, you may not know about my free newsletter “Fresh Horses”.

To subscribe and receive the bonus of my free guide “How you can draw by learning to see,”

please go to : http:www.heartsongstudio.com