The Secret of Painting

We've all heard of the book "The Secret" which proposes to bring you everything you wish for in life, I am not sure if that secret works, but I am going to give a SECRET in this post that will practically guarantee you will create better paintings. I found it in an old out-of-print artbook called Creative Painting by Lenore Sherman. Are you ready? Here it is: "Painting is the visible expression of ideas held by the artist. It is at first a mental activity, then a physical expression. Therefore, if an artist has only a vague idea of his subject and a hazy notion as to the technique of painting it, then the painting will show this uncertainty." Did you grasp the importance of this? Without getting woo-woo about it, see the finished painting in your mind, before you start painting it. I read once about an artist who would just shut his eyes before his blank canvas and visualize a finished painting on it for about 15 minutes before touching brush to canvas. Try this out and see if it works for you.

Here is one of my recent paintings:

If you'd like to see more of my paintings, check out wwww.wworcesterart.com