A Thousand Tiny Failures

"A Thousand Tiny Failures" - acrylic on wood panel (baltic birch, uncradled) 6.5" x 9.5" x .5". Ready to hang (back has been pre-wired for hanging). Available here and at Artfinder.

Improvement at anything is based on thousands of tiny failures.
- MARK MANSON, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*CK

Oh, the studio is a rumpus room for the month of May, as Brian and I begin a month long e-course with the always incredible Irish artist Pauline Agnew. This course focuses on color, which is perfect during May when there seems to be a riot of color everywhere around us.

color studies

There are piles of color studies in the studio. Some of them may inspire a painting (like today's piece). The bulk of them will end up in the bin. But each of them is one of the thousand tiny failures required to produce something wonderful.

This is true in life just as in painting. We try. We fail. We try again and fail again until it seems like we many never succeed at [insert your favorite thing to fail at here]. Then, Manson says, we often become afraid to fail and stick only to what we're already good at. That's where the DO SOMETHING principle comes in. Just do something. Anything. The smallest thing. And get the snowball rolling toward being successful at that thing that once seemed impossible. Ready? GO!

About the painting: this began as one of the course color studies, which became an underpainting for the final piece. Acrylic paint, palette knife, paint brush, spray bottle and rubber wedge. The chromatic black is my new favorite color - a mix of Van Dyke Brown and Prussian Blue. Of the colors nearest to black in art, Pauline says the goal is "dark, not dead." Omg. Right on, I say.

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