Today I tried to paint this little plant that was sitting in front of me. Instead what happened on the canvas was NOTHING like what I was seeing behind it. I tried time and time again to replicate what my eyes were seeing, but it just wouldn't work. My right arm hurt too bad to make these fine brush strokes and my left arm is not quite trained enough to make those perfect motions either.

Typically I don't even bother with these tiny, perfect lines. Typically what I do is broad, rough lines with my brushes packed with imperfectly mixed paint on them. My end result is always something bright and (to me) mesmerizing. I will end up happy and enjoying not only the painting, but also the process I went through in order to get that painting. Even though abstract artists are scoffed at and the people with untrained eyes will say "Oh I can do that" when in reality, they didn't. They have done nothing even close to that painting in their lives and probably never will.

What I am trying to say here is the perfect painting can be replicated. You can learn those perfect movements and remake those perfectly blended colors. What you cannot replicate is the imperfect. Hell even the artists that originally made the painting usually cannot remake it. That imperfect painting becomes one of a kind and thus stands out. Artists that embrace their inability to use those perfect lines can create so much more. They can create the things in their head and the emotions that they feel.

Yes, learning to create the perfect lines is an accomplishment in itself and it becomes a different kind of art, but at the same time, it is the same art. I never have fully understood why I would want to train so hard to recreate something that already exists. It does look amazing and is beautiful to see, but the fact remains that it already exists.

I think that perhaps that hardest way of painting is making those perfect lines into something that is not real. There are some artists that have accomplished this, but I don't think that is something that I want to do. I want to create the things that I can only see in my head.

This has really been an eye opener for me.