Seeing a masterpiece.



I was at an auction house reception last night in preparation for an auction on Saturday. I saw a painting by one of the masters of Philippine Art, Vicente Manasala and when you see a very good painting by a master you understand why their work stands out from the crowd.
There were a few pieces in the auction that were really factory work, an Artist repeating themselves because they had a ready market, but the masters painting was different, it looked majestic, you had the sense that the Artist loved the work and bought it to life with a gentle caring hand, not like the other work that looked manufactured.
I have seen a lot of Manasala’s paintings and his style is not something that I personally would warm to, but this was a painting by a master and it was stunningly beautiful.
This is one of those wonderful pieces by a true master Artist, yet in saying that, have I seen what I think is average work by this Artist?
Yes of course, not every painting is a masterpiece, even by a great Artist, some are average, some should have never been shown, despite the signature, but most of his work is good yet only a very few are masterpieces and this was one of them.
Many Artists believe that every painting they do is wonderful and if you are a factory painter it is probably true in the sense that if you repeat what you do, then the factory process becomes perfect and each painting comes out looking the same.
Great masters always paint with the chance of failure, pushing boundaries, trying to get a little more out of each painting, and because of this striving to capture the unknown, failures come and average paintings are produced.
This certainly does not hinder or stop those bound for greatness for within the chance of failure is also the chance of success and this is one of those great successes, failure was overcome and a masterpiece was created.
Every painting you do is not a masterpiece but within every new original painting is the opportunity for a masterpiece, the key is to keep painting despite the chance of failure.


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