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Purple Sky, Grand Mountains

Loose artwork represents a strange phenomena amongst painters. Most of my favorite paintings of all time are very loosely done, with hardly any attention to detail. I feel it is important to recognize why detail is not the most important element of a picture and why quick, effortless, and loose styles of painting are the way to go.

Like many people, I believed the quality of art depended on its detail and realism. I was confused by the success of names like Picasso and Van Gogh. The problem is that detail actually does not represent a good picture, but rather a good part. If one believe detail or exactness is what makes a good picture good, then simply look at Kazimir Malevich’s “Black Square”



Ah yes! Black Square perfectly depicts a black room, or the details of my armpit! Is Black Square not a perfect close up of my black suite? I jest however as I don’t believe that Black Square is actually an enjoyable painting, simply a highly detailed one.

Secondly, detail and realism go hand in hand. Realism however has many flaws, too many for me to cover in the space of this article however for completeness of arguments sake I will present some surface ones. Realism is not truly art because it is not creative. The artist is simply demonstrating his mastery of techniques that can replicate god’s art. On this note, all realist painters have failed their demonstration because they can never do a better job than god. Photographs do a better job than paints at depicting detail and those still generally fail to capture the full beauty of a scene, atleast in the hands of an amateur. Therefore, detail can’t be the metric of quality art.

So what makes art good and what does that have to do with loose brushwork? Most of the great artists will tell you the secret to remarkable art is almost entirely composition. Composition is both the arrangement of elements on your picture and the way the picture manages the flow of attention of your viewer. If you are interested in improving your own work, there are plenty of books and web articles on the topic. All of the elements in a picture can be broken up into different shapes, and lines that the eye follows. Following in love with a picture is a very immediate thing, far faster that the time it would take to pay attention to details. This leads me to believe that as long as you master composition details become less relevant. In fact, I believe placing extensive details in your picture will both slow you down, and increase the likely hood that the eye becomes distracted while examining a painting.

The other thing that loose brushwork does for you is it increases your ability to express emotion. The same apple still life can be done, with violent, big, aggressive brush strokes -or- soft, swirly, brushstrokes. When your no longer restricted to portraying the reality of scene, it becomes much easier to express the emotion in your picture. Emotion is so important to painting as it gives meaning to the images you create. Instead of “here is a picture of a horse, here is a etc....” your have a meaningful tender nosed horse, not just in physically appearance aspect but every element of your painting allows your express that same tenderness. This is something I feel I could have done a better job with in Purple Sky, Grand Mountains. Nonetheless, it can still dramatically make a difference between a mediocre painting, and a classic.