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Brande Arno
Fort Payne, Alabama Email: [email protected]
Phone: 585-330-6623 Website: www.brandearnofineart.com Instagram: @brande.arno.fine.art Facebook: @brande.arno YouTube: @brandearnofineart |
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Thoughts from a Studio Gardener:
I can explain my artist’s journey as a gardener might. You see some years ago I planted and now, still care for a studio garden. Sometimes I paint well, but there will always be the weeds from weak paintings and I will always have to pull them from the studio garden.
When I recollect the amount of time and work involved as a studio gardener, what surfaces is years of days where I struggled with a painting that was almost finished, then doing some random and unknown thing that ruined it. So many nights I’d collapse on the studio floor in a heap and in mourning because I killed a painting. I ruined it, it
left me, I lost what I had, I’m not good enough and I’ll never get there were the daily soundtracks of my mind during this time.
But the next day, I went back to the easel. Still, I wanted better outcomes with my paintings. Desperate to discover secrets, I eagerly went to watch and hear real artists describe their process and haunted them as they demonstrated artistic prowess. I took copious notes – sure that I’d paint my masterpiece the next day. No good outcome followed that day, or the next and the next.
Then, I thought of books. With each book purchased, was the hope of discovering the secrets of making great art. So much hope became so much failure. But always waiting in the studio garden was the easel and learned practice. Which took hours of years, but now I have my process, my style. It was never about finding
secrets.
Now, I examine the day’s work. Does the painting show my process and style? If not, then what matters is the failed painting is weeded and added to the unseen hours of learned practice. I weed the studio garden for my patrons, both current and future. For my reputation both now and later and to keep the pathway to my best paintings uncluttered.
Brande Arno
I can explain my artist’s journey as a gardener might. You see some years ago I planted and now, still care for a studio garden. Sometimes I paint well, but there will always be the weeds from weak paintings and I will always have to pull them from the studio garden.
When I recollect the amount of time and work involved as a studio gardener, what surfaces is years of days where I struggled with a painting that was almost finished, then doing some random and unknown thing that ruined it. So many nights I’d collapse on the studio floor in a heap and in mourning because I killed a painting. I ruined it, it
left me, I lost what I had, I’m not good enough and I’ll never get there were the daily soundtracks of my mind during this time.
But the next day, I went back to the easel. Still, I wanted better outcomes with my paintings. Desperate to discover secrets, I eagerly went to watch and hear real artists describe their process and haunted them as they demonstrated artistic prowess. I took copious notes – sure that I’d paint my masterpiece the next day. No good outcome followed that day, or the next and the next.
Then, I thought of books. With each book purchased, was the hope of discovering the secrets of making great art. So much hope became so much failure. But always waiting in the studio garden was the easel and learned practice. Which took hours of years, but now I have my process, my style. It was never about finding
secrets.
Now, I examine the day’s work. Does the painting show my process and style? If not, then what matters is the failed painting is weeded and added to the unseen hours of learned practice. I weed the studio garden for my patrons, both current and future. For my reputation both now and later and to keep the pathway to my best paintings uncluttered.
Brande Arno
