 I struggle internally with a battle every day. It's about painting traditional oils vs. abstracts. Should I focus more on one vs. the other? Should I continue to do both? Perhaps I should just paint one?
I get opinions and input every day on this subject. Which is not necessarily a good thing. Because most people feel very strongly about one or the other. In other words, they like one and DON'T LIKE the other. Currently the input runs about 40% in favor of abstracts and 55% in favor of oils and less than 5% who like both. Ok. I haven't really been keeping track. This is just purely an estimate. Or a guestimate. Or a make-it-up-estimate. But it feels pretty exact. So I will go with it. I have been trying to paint both. But it is really hard. The approach to painting abstracts vs. traditional oils is very different. It takes a completely different mindset and often I feel "rusty" if I have been focusing on one more than the other. I also worry that it is confusing to my clients as the two are so different. So I am thinking about moving more in one direction than the other. The problem is that I just can't figure out which direction. Geez. Maybe I should just shut up and keep doing both. Do you struggle with anything like this? Perhaps which medium to paint? Or size? Any thoughts you would like to share? 
22 Comments
5/27/2016 03:36:29 am
I can identify with your struggle - In the past year I've more fully defined my style which is more realism than expressionism, and have been mostly happy with it, but I often think that a looser style is probably more popular, and quicker to produce. But I love rendering details so much, I haven't been able to make the change. Maybe it comes down to what makes you love making art. 5/27/2016 03:57:09 am
Since you are doing the email campaign with designers (I thought for your abstracts), would that not give you the feedback you need? Or is that where your numbers come from. 5/27/2016 04:16:00 am
I love how honest you are about your struggles Leslie. I often feel pulled in too many directions artistically because I have been painting watercolors for years and still love the free, spontaneously nature of the medium but I am also enjoying experimenting with all of the mixed media and collage materials out there. And then there are my watercolor batiks. And I would love to explore encaustics more. Too many choices and too little time. But, I guess that is also what makes being an artist so much fun! 5/27/2016 04:22:02 am
Paint what your inner self wants/needs painted. You are painting first and foremost to express YOURSELF, to satisfy YOUR creative urge. You are not painting to keep others from being confused! If you enjoy the creative challenge of moving back and forth from one style to another, and confronting that bit of "rustiness" repeatedly, indulge yourself. If it might feel better to stay in one mode for a longer stretch and then shift to the other mode for a longer stretch, i.e. establishing self-assigned "seasons," do that, but do it because that's what feels right to you. Your post really resonated with me, I paint abstracts, whimsical girls and odd creatures. And I move back and forth between them. But what I know is each style resonates with a different part of me. We have many facets of ourselves, and I think it is deeply honest to allow each of them space to grow and breathe in our art. Personally, I would miss your oils if you painted only abstracts. And I would miss your abstracts if you painted only oils. 5/27/2016 04:36:28 am
Hi Leslie! 5/27/2016 04:56:35 am
Leslie,
Cindy Hammond
5/27/2016 04:57:17 am
Leslie I can so relate to these inner struggles. Maybe it's an artist thing. I thought I was the only one that felt this way or I thought it was ADD!! I go back and forth with media, oils vs. watercolor, loose vs. detail, palette knife vs. brushes. What to do, what to do. I love your oils but I also love your abstracts. Here in SC, abstracts are just starting to appear more often. We are behind the West Coast, but I was wondering if that movement is becoming the new interest. What sells the best for you? In the magazines abstracts are being mixed in with a lot of eclectic décor and used with the sleek, minimal style. So maybe paint what the need is at the time, but I would miss your oils if you didn't do them. You tell us to mix it up and make change and you were so excited about the abstracts. We have an artist here in Greenville that just launched her abstracts after years of realism. Although her style was very loose and almost leaning toward abstract. (Emily Jeffords) she is on Instagram and has a website. These struggles are difficult, I can't even decide on what to do first on my to do list half the time. Decisions are difficult sometimes. Do you love one more than the other? Maybe you are at a transition and fighting it? Your numbers are so close it doesn't help you. Then again, What will sell best?? If you love both..... 5/27/2016 05:24:16 am
Well-known photographer Rick Sammon addressed this dilemma by adopting as his motto: "I specialize in not specializing". He's done well for himself by living by those words. 5/27/2016 05:40:46 am
I struggle with everything all the time...but the name for all of that, I think, is being true to yourself. A life long struggle I suspect.
Crystal Clement
5/27/2016 05:46:31 am
After four years of mainly painting in the winter (and then only doing tutorials b/c I was scared and not confident) I decided this January that I need to get serious and try do do my own paintings from my own references and such. It has been VERY tough and frustrating for me 5/27/2016 06:03:28 am
My question is... who do you paint for; your clients or yourself? I hear that a lot from local artists, your struggle is universal, not just for artists but artists express themselves more vocally. I go by what makes me happy and yes I am very much like Martha, love it all, keep finding new passions an will do it all. But I am not like most, I art for me, I create because I cant avoid it, it is in me and I can't wait to see it a finished product. I have no desire whatsoever to listen to a client on what they want me to do. If both are your passions, follow them. I did read one artist blog saying he used to keep separate accounts. If you have this struggle and you see it confuses your customer, open up another website and call it something else and separate the two. In my opinion, it isn't the fact that the two forms are so very different, I think your point is valid only to those customers who are traditionalists, they just don't get abstract work at all, and abstracts lovers are two kind, ones who can't fit traditional work in their decor, and others who find traditional work banal. I have done several shows and I guess I don't look the part of an artist because I get to hear their inner thoughts... You might consider you are broadening your client pool by doing both... 5/27/2016 06:22:52 am
Leslie, 5/27/2016 06:23:08 am
It's such a struggle for us creatives! For the last 5 years, I've concentrated on my part-time pottery business while I continued to work at my day job and dabble in oil painting for relaxation. The pottery sells well online and at shows. Then I retired from the day job earlier this year and moved nearer family in another state where I have no studio and spotty internet service. 5/27/2016 06:23:57 am
If you enjoy doing both do both. 5/27/2016 07:46:17 am
Leslie, A great question! I've dabbled in both, I've painted animals and landscapes, I've worked in mixed media and straight mediums for years. I've asked myself this type of question for years. I found a way of working that gave me a thrill in my mixed media, but when I found it time to grow some more as an artist I was met with some resistance from galleries I was in. My conclusion to date is to be true to myself, explore and ask myself questions about what I love most about each way of working. Once I have those questions answered I feel more confident to work in one way or another for the moment in life. 5/27/2016 09:41:04 am
Interesting to hear that you Leslie, and all you other artists that have commented here have this "art drama" going on as well! I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE! Yes, we hear, "do what you love", "paint what makes you happy".... but obviously love both and you are awesome at both. And if sales are close enough in numbers, then....Hard to decide if you feel that you must go in only one direction. If anyone figures out how to come to a decision, please let us know. Leslie, you have figured out how to market your 2 ways separately but within the same art business successfully but I feel your pain and dilemma as to feeling rusty when switching between the two. My art drama is between painting with a palette knife only or with brushes only. I LOVE both and switch back and forth and I do feel rusty, very rusty when I switch methods. I love the looseness of freshness of the knife and I love the beautiful feel and look of the brushes. My sales are about equal between the two so that's no help to me. At this moment, I've been trying to paint with a brush and I feel like I don't know how to paint again! I have tried to do only one but I keep sneaking back to the other method. Such a dilemma this art drama creates for us! I have told my clients and visitors to a gallery that I am a schizophrenic artist and they laugh and say something like, they like both or something like that.... I do feel that if I only painted with 1 method that I would be a better painter but then I feel that when I do both that I am more varied and have options.
Kathryn
5/28/2016 10:09:19 am
Hey Leslie, Have you considered you are seeing the two as separate when they really are one in the same? As a full time designer and painter hobbyist, I recognize how difficult it is to do and understand abstraction. To competently create abstraction beyond abstract expressionism in which an overall texture is created, one must understand DESIGN. This can be a field of study in and of itself - fully understanding the elements of design, placement ,action, color interaction and how all the elements of a work/interact with each other. Artists who solely focus on realism who stick with conservative views of art who dismiss abstraction as pfft, naively overlook how design can benefit their own work. Think beyond the application of paint to the underlying form and crucial interactions and you will learn what makes great realism as well as abstraction. Mysuggestion is to start stydying Albers, color theory beyond mixing paint, art philosophy, and perhaps start taking high level design courses. You have touched upon a simple form of abstract expressionism and a sure fire way to kick yourself into deep growth would be to really start thinking about what bridges abstraction and realism and that is Design. Good luck!
Hi Leslie,
Patricia Nelson
5/29/2016 03:04:22 pm
Why choose? It might be fun to explore marrying the more traditional with the abstract. A fun exercise would be to take one of your traditional paintings and base an abstract on it using either its colors and forms or from a cropped area within the painting. 5/31/2016 03:30:22 am
I do both, sometimes I do it all, esp if I get a commission which I call assignment painting. It teaches me growth is real and excites me to move past a challenge. One mentor told me to have two different signatures. That does not work for me. However, the down side is people telling you what they like and don't like, and galleries wanting what sells. So, the answer is do it all, go out and do plein airs, stay in and abstract an idea, till it falls in place, don't listen to advice and live the journey. Eventually, we fall in love with the style of the moment, then we find another style of the moment. We are lucky, now, you have the choice to listen to this or NOT. Love the honesty. 6/1/2016 01:33:11 pm
I thoroughly understand your dilemma Leslie, and I have been struggling with this for the last year. I think for me it comes at that point of asking, "Is this a business or a hobby?" (and for me it is business, but yes, it's quite personal/from the heart expression). So I've been an oil painter for a couple decades, and my style has evolved over time. But during the past 2 years, I've also started "watercolor journaling" for fun...and wondering if I could make a business out of this...and yes- "a dog trying to chase two rabbits catches none"....it takes such incredible effort, and I truly feel like I'm not as effective as I used to be just staying focused on one thing! Besides the time put toward creating work, there's the marketing, etc. business end of things...I wonder if I'm making myself crazy....There are parts to both mediums that I really do love, though I feel more competent at one than the other (oils). But juggling two, and keeping track of business efforts have been exhausting! And once I've committed to an outside project, I'm finding it's not as easy as "just letting go" I have to see it through to the end. Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
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