There is a great deal of confusion in the field of art and
art instruction with regards to the subjects of talent and
creativity.
Until recently, like the majority of contemporary society,
I too believed that to be a fine artist one had to be born
with an abundance of artistic talent - you either had it or
you didn't.
This is the likely reason I was an art dealer and owner of
a gallery for years, instead of being an artist and having
my work displayed in a gallery.
Today I am quite relieved to find that, even though I was
not born with a large currency of innate visual artistic
talent, such talent can be acquired and developed.
I can imagine that quite a large number of this article's
readership disagrees - perhaps some vehemently - with that
statement.
This is why I am bringing in someone exponentially more
qualified to address the confusion on the subject of talent
which has permiated societies around the art world for
100's of years.
I didn't just find any art instructor to help sort this
out, Larry Gluck has been teaching others how to draw and
paint since 1975. His 20 Mission: Renaissance fine art
studios are currently teaching more than 3,000 students
every week. His unique method of instruction, known as The
Gluck Method, is also taught in various colleges in America.
So without further ado here is Mr. Gluck to help dispel
this "talent myth..."
"I'm not very creative, I have no talent." If you had a
nickel for every time I heard someone say that before I got
them to sign up for drawing and painting instruction you
would be very wealthy indeed.
Perhaps you too believe you lack the "artistic gene" or
"special gift" called talent. Let's get real about this
thing called talent, shall we?
Talent implies a degree of skill or ability. Ability in any
field can be acquired. Were you born with the talents
required of you in your current profession?
Of course not, you acquired the skills you needed in order
to perform. Can you learn to play any musical instrument
you want or would you need to have been born with the
talent?
Like anything else, you can learn to draw and paint
beautifully. You need only the desire to acquire the skills
and someone to provide you with workable instruction.
Moreover, people often confuse talent with creativity. Both
are important, they combine to create art, but they are not
the same.
The dictionary defines 'create' as; to cause to come into
being, as something unique that would not naturally evolve
by ordinary processes. Create is what evolves from one's
own thought or imagination, to bring about, as by intention
or design. Creativity could easily be described as what one
imagines and then produces using one's skills.
People use their skills to bring their creative concepts
into the real world for others to see. The painter observes
a spectacular view. He imagines painting it in vibrant
colors. Then, using his talent, he transforms his idea into
the actual painting.
Not everyone is born with an abundance of talent, but each
of us possesses a wealth of potential artistic creativity.
It is imprisoned within all of us. We have only to free it.
Natural artistic talent alone is not enough. Those born
with natural talent, an instinct for color, the ability to
sketch a good likeness with charcoal, are often thought of
as gifted. However in life, innate ability often turns out
to be more of a liability than an asset.
It is often found that the Natural doesn't know how he does
what he does. Natural talent, devoid of understanding, can
be unreliable. One small failure can shatter it.
The Natural may eventually invent "reasons" as to why he
can perform only some of the time. Examples are the writer
who must drink to create his best lines or the painter who
"knows" she can only work when Mars is transiting
Sagittarius.
Unfortunately artistic talent and creativity are not
properly married in the majority of fine art instruction
curriculums. Studying under the Italian portrait master
Giuseppe Trotta ' a classmate of Picasso himself,
graduating from The Pratt Institute in New York, and
founding the world's largest fine art program for drawing
and painting instruction, have provided me much insight
into art education.
I have seen both sides of the talent and creativity coin
hobby-horsed in colleges and private art instruction
programs. Rarely have I seen both sides given proper merit
simultaneously. On the talent side, you have the art
instructor who ignores any form of creativity. The music
teacher, believing all great music was originated hundreds
of years ago, who disallows any original work from students.
On the other hand, focusing on creativity alone, you find
the art teacher who applauds the unrecognizable blob of
paint smeared across the canvas. No fundamentals are
taught, thus there is no improvement in the student's
artistic ability to reproduce what he or she envision in
their mind.
In developing talent one should begin with the fundamentals
of drawing and sketching; the proper technique for holding
a charcoal pencil, how to create depth and realism, the
ability to capture light and shadow...
Once the ground work for these fundamentals is thoroughly
laid the precise principles that underlie all drawing and
painting skills can be taught.
This does not stifle originality, but instead provides the
best possible environment for it to grow.
When the fine art student has both a solid technical
foundation and strong nurturing of creativity, they are
then capable of producing what they conceive in their mind.
And that is exactly where any artist wants to be."
----------------------------------------------------
Eric Hines has worked in the field of art for over a decade
as a musician, art dealer and is currently employed by
Mission Renaissance, the world's largest drawing and
painting instruction program in the world. He is currently
taking art classes to learn to draw and paint, very soon he
will be selling his own art work and not just the works of
others. You can visit the Mission Renaissance website at
http://www.thegluckmethod.com
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