He loved his Art.
When I was a young man starting out in the business world in the 1970's, I would go to a barber in the suburb of Sandgate where I lived. The reason I would always go this particular barber was that he was an Artist, a very dedicated Artist and I was also painting and enjoyed talking to him about Art.
His Barber shop was filled with his paintings, every space on the walls was covered with his paintings, all the paintings were of his local area in every season and weather condition.
When he had no customers he would work on his paintings. He taught me so much about Art. Not how to paint or what to paint, but about attitude to painting and dedication to your craft, always turning up and painting whether you sell or not, for him it was always about the act of painting.
As a prolific Artist he was very successful, he painted at every opportunity that he could and he had a large body of work to show for his efforts.
Whether they were good or bad paintings it was never discussed, what was discussed was his great love of painting and art.
To me he was a successful Artist.
As a full time selling Artist he was a total failure, he told me in all the years he had sold one or two paintings. He had prices on each painting, very little in cost, but the prices just hung there like his paintings, year after year.
People did not understand his work and did not want it, he was a naive painter, today we would call his work Outsider Art or Brut Art and he would be popular.
It never upset him that people did not understand his work, he loved painting and wanted to interpret his world as he saw it. He was not moved by fashions or trends in the Art world only by his creative drive and how he saw his world. I was very fortunate to know this man.
His Barber shop was filled with his paintings, every space on the walls was covered with his paintings, all the paintings were of his local area in every season and weather condition.
When he had no customers he would work on his paintings. He taught me so much about Art. Not how to paint or what to paint, but about attitude to painting and dedication to your craft, always turning up and painting whether you sell or not, for him it was always about the act of painting.
As a prolific Artist he was very successful, he painted at every opportunity that he could and he had a large body of work to show for his efforts.
Whether they were good or bad paintings it was never discussed, what was discussed was his great love of painting and art.
To me he was a successful Artist.
As a full time selling Artist he was a total failure, he told me in all the years he had sold one or two paintings. He had prices on each painting, very little in cost, but the prices just hung there like his paintings, year after year.
People did not understand his work and did not want it, he was a naive painter, today we would call his work Outsider Art or Brut Art and he would be popular.
It never upset him that people did not understand his work, he loved painting and wanted to interpret his world as he saw it. He was not moved by fashions or trends in the Art world only by his creative drive and how he saw his world. I was very fortunate to know this man.
He a successful Artist
Though he never sold.
His view was that he loved to paint and he loved art and that he would never stop painting, so he was successful, he painted a large body of work, his legacy which he loved and which told his life story.
That is what Art is all about.
Though he never sold.
His view was that he loved to paint and he loved art and that he would never stop painting, so he was successful, he painted a large body of work, his legacy which he loved and which told his life story.
That is what Art is all about.
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