No painting looks it’s part in the first few hours. Not on my canvases at least. It comes together a bit at a time.

It doesn’t matter, because I know where I’m taking it.

On the other hand, heading to a canvas and just starting to apply paint with no clear objective is neither my style nor desire.

Over the past few years I’ve put considerable thought into this nagging question, “What exactly  sets my work apart?” And my answer to myself has been muddled. Yes, it has a certain look. My voice has a certain sound also but that doesn’t make me an orator. Visually, JC Leyendecker sets a great example for unique appearance in his work. Literally, no one painted like he did. His was a totally unique look. This could be said for Alphonse Mucha and Escher as well. I don’t believe any of them sought that out. It’s just their visual accent. The voice of Burl Yves was a combination of his pipes and personality. I can’t imagine that he could have not sounded like he did.

To answer the question was not easy. Fake style is just that. So I didn’t attempt to hand craft anything outside my native methodologies in expression.

Then there was another issue. The three things I gravitate toward in subject matter have different audiences and some don’t seem to have much going for them commercially.

First, people. I enjoy depicting female subjects. People like them, but not enough to part with money to get them. The genre has been delegitimized by abuse at the hands of lust peddlers. In their hearts, I suspect that the way I see the fairer gender is the way most people want them seen and understood. That’s not a self aggrandizing comment. I really believe it. And I believe other artists have done well in this arena and navigate it’s realm without corruption. Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun got it. She painted in France a couple hundred years ago. I can’t name a current example but I’m certain I will find someone given time. Not everyone buys into the idea that to excuse the presentation of soul moving attractiveness it must be coupled with some sort of thematic excuse. Certainly not everyone accepts that the sum of a person  in art is their affect on your senses.

So I have the attitude I like about female subjects. Others have their own. I create from my way of thinking, not from the views of others.

I have been advised by many that there isn’t any money in this. “People don’t buy decent art of decent girls doing decent things” seems to be the message.  If I cared or bought into this, I’d believe that painting them is only fit for hobby art after all the serious stuff is done. I don’t believe it, despite that it is statistically accurate. The problem with statistics is that they’re only meaningful in trends. This is a world where specifics matter. If it were not so, then a Yugo and a BMW, both being cars, would be on equal ground. Yugo’s don’t retain their resale value for good reason. BMW cars have a certain positive aura also for good reason: they’re better cars. Better in all the specifics. Better fit and finish. Better engineering. Better durability. Better support network. Just all around better.

Speaking of cars, “better” can be subjective. The Lotus Europa can be had relatively cheaply. it’s a unique vehicle in many respects. If you were to add up all the plusses and minuses of a generic automobile wish list, scoring each item the same, it would fail miserably against most other cars. Why? It’s a niche vehicle. Those who value the attributes it personifies give greater weight to it’s peculiar assets than to its glaring ‘short comings’. So you factor in the desires and needs of the owner and how the car answers those and the formula for what is better or worse changes for that person.

Given that this truth applies to art also, I don’t have to give up this beloved genre. I will continue to draw and paint  female subjects.

Next, I paint landscapes. They’re a special sort of fun. As much as I love them, I rarely ever do them. Very strange, because they excite me and are beautiful. I just don’t get around to painting them all that often.

Finally, machines. Particularly cars. I love to draw and paint them and they occupy more than their share of my time. No one has ever asked me to paint their car or boat or plane or else I’d have really emerged for what I am with this genre. So I’ve limited it to what cars excite me and even then I haven’t done much.

So here I stand, making no money, an artist full of promise and with sufficient ability to do acceptable work. I don’t show in galleries. I don’t publish, outside of the calendars, and I don’t have a name anyone recognizes. I haven’t, in my opinion, even had a distinctive look in my works.

How to stand out in the field of other creatives? That has been the question for many years.

Recently I was conversing with my friend and something he said triggered an image in my mind. Interesting. I took note. He also made a suggestion.

Today I realized what I must do and the mist of uneasy lack of certainty cleared away in an instant.

This has been a long time coming. It allows and even demands that the big three preferences in subjects be utilized in all their glory and then some.

And I’ll say this in advance, the end result will encompass a scope of activities that no one who knows me would have had a prayer of predicting. All good. All positive. No one would have seen it coming. It will also explain some prep that I’ve done that otherwise would have seemed pointless.

It’s a relief and I am energized! I was, as I suspected, on the right track. Now it’s time to get to work. This feels like those trips to the beach when I was a kid. My parents would head that way and drive for an hour or more through forest land and farms and then we could feel it in the air and finally we would see the vast expanse of ocean horizon through the trees and then we’d know it wasn’t long until we had sand between our toes and the immersive rush of ocean sounds before us as we stand face to face with the surf.

Now if you are thinking, “but what is it? what?” I will suggest that you will be happier to see for yourself.

The point of this post is to exclaim that at last I have a very good idea where I fit and what I must do.

One of the immutable laws of inspiration with regard to specific canvases has proven impossible to ignore or circumvent. In deference to that reality, how about I get to work and make this happen!