It's that time again, when I'm gearing up for a full week of painting and creating. I spent the last week or so organising my spaces and bringing in equipment, so now I'm prepped and enabled to let loose and be productive. I can't wait.
The first part has been getting all the canvas together, because I'll be needing something to paint on after all. I now have rooms full of boxes and shrink-wrapped canvas, just waiting to be coloured and give life to unknown images.
Funnily enough though, I still don't have everything I need to finish off the project I'm working on (it's a big one). I had to put in an order with my favourite art supplier to get some canvases delivered, which will hopefully be restocked sometime this week. However, right now I have more than enough white space to keep be occupied until the final pieces are acquired.
Paint is a different story, as I tend to buy paints in small batches. It's an expensive material, but obviously an important one. I've never been one to go for expensive materials, but even the cheaper end of acrylic paints can add up when you're buying a range of colours.
The same goes for canvas though, as I've never been inclined to purchase the expensively beautiful versions of anything. I tend to use a decent mid-ranged canvas that feels good to use, but isn't completely terrible and tacky. Perhaps that can be the theme this week - as material quality can be something that poor artists struggle with.
The truth is that yes, the expensive stuff is usually better… within reason. Beautiful brushes, paints, pens, canvas, pencils, whatever; will always cost more, but that's not to say that the cheap stuff isn't worth using. After all, I often use house paint when I'm not required to use a specific medium, simply because it's effective and really cheap to buy.
At the other end of the world, remember that some of the greatest painters the world has ever seen, used to make paints from the stone walls in their studio. When an artist can make a masterpiece from some dirt mixed with water, it stands as pretty great evidence that you can do whatever you want with any medium at all.
I guess I've seen colleagues get caught up in what to buy and what to use, and I've done the same as well. In a lot of industries, you can only make something worthwhile if you use the best ingredients and tools. As a baker I can tell the difference between qualities of flour, as the crap stuff will never perform as well as the top grade version.
To an extent the same can be said for art, but I think there's a lot more options across the entire quality spectrum. I do have a few very nice brushes that I bought at great expense, and there's no denying that they are simply delightful to use. Although I still have piles of low quality brushes that are my every day tools and continue to do the job perfectly fine.
I suppose the difference is in the purpose of the project, as you may need to create something with specific materials to suit a situation. For instance, the project I'm working on at the moment requires bright acrylic paints, so I'm not using house paints which are often a little dull. Plus, I'm using some pretty average brushes because I'm not doing any fine work that needs sophistication and precision.
At the end of the day you could make any mark on any surface and it will be worthwhile if you're exercising some honest creativity. I've seen masterpieces etched into drift-wood, and awful train-wrecks applied to the highest grades of canvas. The reality is that it doesn't matter what kind of materials you have to work with, it's all about the work you produce.
So with that in mind I'm going to unwrap my brand new stock of cheaper canvases, and refill my inexpensive acrylic collection. I'll pick up my shitty brushes and wash them out in the old bucket I keep by the back door, because at the end of the day I'll be making pretty pictures.
And that's all I ever want to do.