Original Art, and By a Slough, daily painting by Everglades Artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

By a Slough, 2013, Jo-Ann Sanborn

acrylic on canvas, 5"x7"

 

 

When an artists looks at a subject with the idea of painting it, the goal should almost never to be to duplicate or replicate what is seen.  A camera can do that.  The artist should, because of skill, training, and practice be able to do it, but copying should never be the goal of making a good painting.

 

Selective principals of design should be combined with the ideas of the artist, and the skill and tools of the artist, to portray the subject in a way that incorporates the  artist's unique way of seeing.  Somehow, during the process of creation, there should be an arc of transformation during which the subject looses it's former identity and becomes something new, with the final result distinctive and identifiable to the creator. This is original work. 

 

I believe that this is true of the creative process in all artistic disciplines.   Make sense to you?