That quote by Salvador Dali

Have no fear of perfection, you'll never reach it.

is a good segue into this book review.

Book review

To give the book its full title:

Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles and Ted Orland.

Apparently, this book became a cult classic among artists via word-of-mouth reviews and I became aware of its existence via today's word-of-mouth - social media. It's a short book, only 120 pages long, but it's packed full of insights and observations on why art is difficult to do, why much of what we do remains unfinished (or even un-started) and why many artists stop making art altogether.

The authors are photographers but the book can be applied to any form of art making, since much of the underlying psychology is the same for any field of artmaking.

If you are an artist and you're struggling to find your voice or you hit creative dry spots or your sitting in your studio and the work isn't getting done (for any one of a multitude of reasons), then this book was written for you. Don't get me wrong - it won't magically give you all the answers but it will help you understand why things are the way they are - and then armed with that knowledge, you can then do something to hopefully change it.

Finding your style

For any artist still grappling with trying to establish their style, there's a couple of great quotes which I think captures beautifully, how you can achieve this:  

You make good work by (among other things) making lots of work that isn't very good, and gradually weeding out the parts that aren't good, the parts that aren't yours. It's called feedback, and it's the most direct route to learning about your own vision. It's also called doing your work. After all, someone has to do your work, and you're the closest person around.

That quote cracked me up 🤣 

The book is written with humour but also a deep understanding of how we tackle the artistic process. Continuing on the subject of personal fear, they say:

In large measure becoming an artist consists of learning to accept yourself, which makes your work personal, and in following your own voice, which makes your work distinctive.

Until recently, I've been painting master copies as a means to learn the art or taken inspiration from photographs to paint still-life subjects. More recently I've had this feeling gnawing away at me that something's missing and I think this book has helped me resolve why I should be doing my own original work.

To that end, one quote that resonated with me is:

For any given time only a certain sort of work resonates with life, then that is the work you need to be doing in that moment. If you try to do some other work, you will miss your moment.

Lately, I've had a conceptual idea in mind which needs to be painted, for it is more relevant and will hopefully make more impact at this moment in time. And I now understand that time, and the moment, can help define a painting; so that's my next project sorted.

It's definitely a book to have in your collection and one which can help provide some motivation from time-to-time. It has me.