#536 Throw on another log: Style, loose, technique - CUSS your work!

Throw on another log is a commentary and opinion about art.
It is directed toward students, artists, collectors, 

galleries, museums, and those interested in the arts.
I welcome your comments on this blog or on Facebook.

I have taught workshops for over 25 years and am routinely
informed by workshop participants that they are taking the workshop
because they want to loosen up their style and technique.

Regarding style:  Artists develop individual ways of seeing their subject.
The imprint of the artist's personality -  the manner in which their subject is presented - is the artist's style.  Furthermore, style manifests itself as the individual artist discovers what interests them most about their subject.

"Loose" technique is the ability to give an accurate impression in clay (or paint) without precise attention to detail.

What the artist may perceive as a "loose" technique can actually be sloppy work that is not understood.
Figurative work - both animals and the human figure - require an understanding of the subject's anatomy.
A passage applied to the canvas or sculpture armature in a spontaneous manner must have understood meaning.
The precursor to figurative art is understood anatomy, proportion, drawing, organization, and waypoints.

Painters paint what they see and sculptors sculpt what they know.
The more that is known, the more the artist can edit and eliminate.
In other words . . . CUSS your work . . . an acronym for:  
Clarify, Unify,  Solidify,  Simplify!  

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