So. Pulling the concept right back to it's roots. In my search for meaning and in an attempt to answer the "So what?" question.... Why paint???? Not just the importance of hobbies as investigated earlier, but painting. What does painting mean to people? Why do they paint? What do they get out of it? What do they share with other painters?
–Comments & thoughts from artists sharing online.... about Why they paint...
Why do I Paint?
I have an inner need to express without words.
Having dementia, painting helps me to reach into the darkness to find my way.
—Guest Barbara
I paint because learning a way to express myself is on my bucket list. As a beginning class student at almost 65 years, I have a long way to go before I achieve a real painting. I paint every day. Creating in my head is easy, but so far the actual ability to execute a perfect creation has passed me by. I will keep trying because I enjoy the colors I come up with and sometimes just feel a sense of accomplishment that I haven't given up. Another responder said they did not throw away anything, I keep everything as well in a small apartment, and still using the very cheapest of products.
—Guest Renee Millwood
http://umbrellapaintingjournal.blogspot.com
Another example of proactive painting is working with my mother who was in the last stages of dementia. She retained an asthetic sense, the ability to sign her name and a joy in painting with me. Making a painting was a visual reminder that I had been to see her. A painting done in just a few minutes was quickly forgotten. But it was real evidence for her to remind her that we had visited awhile when it was time to go. Most importantly painting was a way to relate with one another. Another aspect of painting for her was her joy in learning as she painted. Painting allowed her to see her surroundings in a happier way. She said she thought about what she would paint during the many lonely hours of her existance when she was unable to do any of her life functions without help. The reason she could enjoy painting with me was her art background. She had a Bachelors of Arts Degree in painitng from the University of California in Berkeley in 1934. She had an appreciation of all kinds of art from all cultures. She could enjoy her non-objective abstracts. She had an asthetic sense that was never deminished by dementia.
Another example of proactive painting is working with my mother who was in the last stages of dementia. She retained an asthetic sense, the ability to sign her name and a joy in painting with me. Making a painting was a visual reminder that I had been to see her. A painting done in just a few minutes was quickly forgotten. But it was real evidence for her to remind her that we had visited awhile when it was time to go. Most importantly painting was a way to relate with one another. Another aspect of painting for her was her joy in learning as she painted. Painting allowed her to see her surroundings in a happier way. She said she thought about what she would paint during the many lonely hours of her existance when she was unable to do any of her life functions without help. The reason she could enjoy painting with me was her art background. She had a Bachelors of Arts Degree in painitng from the University of California in Berkeley in 1934. She had an appreciation of all kinds of art from all cultures. She could enjoy her non-objective abstracts. She had an asthetic sense that was never deminished by dementia.
I don't know, sometimes for getting that feeling of freedom, sometimes because I don't believe that I know how or can paint, other times because when I look at my paintings I'm not sure that I did them until I bring another one to life. I paint to play with colours, feel the joy of colors to fill my eyes with colors, to remind myself that I can be free, to find an answer to anything I can't figure-out without thinking about it, to see someone starring at my paintings and taking a time to understand it visually, to see someone taking the time to appreciate beauty and art, to leave something when I'm gone saying I was here in my own way. I paint what I see to understand what I know, I paint what I cant express in words, and even if I can I would choose to paint it instead of saying it, I paint to learn how to paint. I paint to prove that simplicity rules, Just a wooden stick with hair at the end of it, would create what took 2010 years of inventions to reach the same result but with no soul.
I feel each mark that I make is a confirmation that I exist. As the forms, colors, images slowly take shape before me in every moment that passes, wonderment and something greater than confidence or inspiration fills and fires me up.
Julia Lundman not sure. i only know that I DO, it’s all i do –I think painting/drawing/sculpting, MAKING is a language of the brain. i prefer visual stimulus more than other ways of thinking and responding. even as a small kid it was easier for me to understand things once they were drawn out rather than talked about. i come from a very large artistic family, also, so perhaps it was my environment/nurture rather than nature.…
Artist Helena Hötzl In our moments when we paint or at least mine:))) I can empty myself and fill myself…..its more like a meditation moment for me….my moment of finding myself, painting people that I met and just see whats going on in my life in another perspective:))) I love my painting moments….when I look now at older pictures I can see what time in my life I had my divorce or other things…it´s all there in the picture…..what I did have in my mind during those moments……I also paint because I notice that other people like my art…some women find themselves in my art…..:)))))That is the biggest happiness…when people likes my art…that is what makes me live this artist life…..:))))
Karen Kaapcke Each and every painting (possibly excepting commissions) is a gesture of meaning-making (my version of the ol’ art-school ‘mark making’ idiom), which of course is over as soon as the painting is ‘done’, and so onto the next one. I started painting during my MA work in Philosophy, almost as a desperate course of action when I kept on bumping up against what seemed to be the futility of language to articulate just about anything really important. (we’re not talking writer’s block here, I was actually writing a ton but it was all rubbish). It is really important to note that this is for me a way of answering questions in a way that keeps the questions very appropriately alive, so I am daily wondering why I paint and daily finding only a very temporary answer in paint.
Gary Bourdon It brings me pleasure and although the final product is usually much less than I hoped for / worked for…….it brings a feeling of accomplishment which I apparently need in my life.
Kim Vanderhoek Because I love the mystery. I love going through the process and finding out how the story ends – did it end in a tragic mess or a triumphant jewel filled with color and light?
Brenda-Lynn Hunt When I paint I step into another world of colour and beauty, I let myself be free and I amaze myself constantly… when I pick up my brushes my mind focuses and all else drops away, hours pass as if they are seconds. … I tend to fall in love each and every time with what I am working on. It is not only an expression of what I am thinking or feeling it is a sense that what I am painting is an extension of myself and no better feeling can express that. I am lost without painting and cannot wait to throw myself back into the mix .. each colour how it works together fascinates me .. love painting will never ever stop.
Steven DaLuzI share many of the reasons mentioned by artists here. As someone said, “I can’t NOT paint.” It’s like a primal need. There is something magical about taking pigments, manipulating them on a surface, to create something that has little practical value other than its ability to make someone feel something…to make them think…to ask a question…to experience a moment of joy…to wonder. For me, the pleasure is in the journey–the dance I savor with the painting itself as it takes form.
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