1.2 The abstract oil painter

1.2_The abstract oil painter

The defining attribute of an oil painter is that he use oil paint, anything beyond that one simple canon closes the door of inventiveness on the oil painter forever.  The discipline of oil painting is less limited than the other forms of art.  Nevertheless, do not be fooled by undefined intolerance, all art is of significant importance to its creators and audience.  To become an abstract oil painter is, in part, a choice; and to continue in life as an oil painter is a dedication made from the artist's passion.  It is a self-disciplined, obsessive, selfish path in its very nature, that cannot be obtained in a year or in ten.  The path of the abstract oil painter is a professional trade that becomes the disciplined pursuit of a lifetime.  I say that it is a choice because the artist will naturally develop toward abstraction the longer he creates works of art.

The abstract oil painter paints by way of his intuition, allowing it to guide him.  The intuitive artist sees the world through the perception of his own philosophy, without social influence.  He is free, liberated from the physical world but bound to its social cooperation.  The intuitive mind of the abstract oil painter is concerned only with his life's work of painting, and does not create works of art for effortless decoration.  For him, works of art are a means to reconcile all ideas, inner thoughts, and philosophical questions, as the oil painter examines every inch of every painting he dedicates himself to that insight he witnesses within his work.  He cannot be distracted from the path that chose him, having such passion for his work that everything, even the mundane acts of daily existence, are obsessively calculated movements toward competing his work.  The oil painter, led by his intuition, is unaffected by critique and all public intrusion.  He envisions praise and disdain as one, external and therefore irrelevant to his path.  High ideals intrinsically predetermine the method and vision of each artist.

The other type of artist is an ornate artist.  Following the trends of his time aesthetically as to be seen within what is popular, and what is socially gratifying.  The ornate fame and fortune driven artist will adorn his socially satisfactory aesthetic in soulless self-gratification and vague personal jokes as pointless works of art created without purpose or passion.  The ornate artist is painting merely for the sake of painting.  

You can never judge the skill and ineptitude of the artist without looking at the artist's life choices.  The intuitive artist is simply doing what drives him, and creating works of art for tomorrow to admire, as he attempts to rationalize and communicate his understanding of the nature of his ideas; and if honest within his work, is at first and at best, misunderstood.  It does not matter what quality the work is, only that the oil painter continue to work, and by continuing, if the artist is true to his nature, the quality of work will progress.  Eventually and inevitably the intuitive artist will become a master at his chosen discipline.