\u2018Everyone can draw and paint\u2019 was a title for a class I saw recently. I\u2019d say \u2018everyone can draw and paint up to a point\u2019 would be much more accurate, but I\u2019m guessing that wouldn\u2019t sell classes so well. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s interesting how controversial it can be for a professional artist (and by professional I mean somebody who makes a living as an artist) to come out and suggest that ‘art’ isn\u2019t universally achievable. To tell people at large that their efforts, however delightful, do not make them artists is often seen as nasty elitist insecurity on our part. I cook, I take photos, I sew and I garden. I\u2019m pretty good at all of those and I enjoy them immensely. What I don\u2019t expect is to be considered a chef, photographer, tailor or professional gardener. I\u2019m not hurt by this and nor do I feel that these various professions are somehow being elitist by excluding me from their ranks. After all, and here\u2019s the point, they spend years learning, studying, practicing, perfecting.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t get me wrong, I love the fact that I teach and that most of my students are total beginners. I know that my classes bring them pleasure and nobody, and my students will agree, is more excited than me by their marvelous prints. But to actually make a living, earn an annual income year in and year out, large enough to fix the plumbing and pay the mortgage, is not a matter of the odd class and enthusiasm. It\u2019s down to hard won skills and talent developed over years of training and effort. So let\u2019s not confuse art being for everyone (which it certainly is) and everyone being an artist (which they certainly aren\u2019t).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u2018Everyone can draw and paint\u2019 was a title for a class I saw recently. I\u2019d say \u2018everyone can draw and paint up to a point\u2019 would be much more accurate, but I\u2019m guessing that wouldn\u2019t sell classes so well. It\u2019s interesting how controversial it can be for a professional artist (and by professional I mean … Continue reading “The Professionals”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lauraboswell.co.uk\/studiodiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lauraboswell.co.uk\/studiodiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lauraboswell.co.uk\/studiodiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lauraboswell.co.uk\/studiodiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lauraboswell.co.uk\/studiodiary\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lauraboswell.co.uk\/studiodiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lauraboswell.co.uk\/studiodiary\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lauraboswell.co.uk\/studiodiary\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lauraboswell.co.uk\/studiodiary\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}