Reasons why I am Clearly Not an Artist

Ok, so had my Assessment Crit today. How did it go?

Hmmm....

Well, Duncan said that we'd laughed more during mine than anyone else's. But he should know that my wit is merely a cover for the fact that I feel I'm exposing myself a bit too much at something I clearly lack confidence in doing.

And so...

They said it was a bit like being at a mad art show of fifty different artists. Except all the paintings were mine.

They said that I'd raised the bar incredibly high in trying to paint not one but five different paintings, using many techniques. (Something that people spend three years at University trying to do).

Duncan suggested I should have tried to tackle just one plant in a pot (for instance) and do many different versions of it. 

I said I'd rather shoot myself than do the same thing twice. (Non-artist answer exhibit A).

They asked where my sketch book was, full of preliminary sketches of, for instance, the chicken.

I pointed, somewhat confused, and answered that my preliminary, intermediary and final sketch of the chicken was...the chicken and why would I need any more versions than that? (Non-artist answer exhibit B). Actually, even Annie was surprised at this: that I had no sketches or in fact anything in my sketch book. But she did allow that I'd already sorted the composition issue with the original photo I took. But ha! Maybe other people can do good paintings because they do lots of practising first. So I learnt something today.

They said that some of my paintings had really good bits in them, reminiscent of oh, I think Bonnard was mentioned...

Chris was nice and said that, even if I'd achieved just one really good painting out of the six, then that was actually good enough.

The only problem is that the one they all liked the most was the one that I'd copied. Which I couldn't initially bear to tell them. 

Until Duncan started asking me all about the bottle (telling me he had the exact same one, but with crustations on it in his garage. Only Duncan). 

I tried saying I didn't want to discuss it, then had to come clean. Although I'd already written about it on here, so heh.

And then Duncan really upset me by telling me that my framing was terrible.

And then I wanted to give up and go home. Because, I'll accept I can't paint very well, but I thought framing was within my ability. 

And, ok, I'll admit, I wasn't sure about my chicken (which I've made Annie take home) or Imani (where, in total, all round, everything is wrong). But what's so terrible about these?

Ok, she says defensively, this one looks a bit harsh with the flash, but really it does look very nice in the room. (Yes, your room Min. I've redecorated).

PS: Umm, here's some preliminary exploratory work I did on my final painting. No sketching I'm afraid. But I did make the paper myself.

pps: And thank you very much Zosie, for reading my blog and saying it was really good. That made me feel a bit better.