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David Bailly vs deadly hands of commercial portraitists

Figurative art is often undervalued in the art world. It is partly due to the rise of “bad figurative”, as described by Dean Kissicik in an article for the Spectator: “Pleasant enough, but mediocre at heart (…) paintings of nothing. Watered-down, cordial, dull subjectivities.” Portraiture is even more controversial, especially the official kind: the internet …

malwina

5th April 2023

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To Paint is to Love Again Part 13: The Unknown Heroes

Everybody loves the clichéd rags-to-riches stories of people surviving hardship and poverty to then become famous and wealthy. Oh, the American Dream. The cliché of making your way from the bottom of the social ladder to the top is well present in pretty much every industry one can possibly think of, and sure enough, art …

malwina

28th December 2021

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To Paint is to Love Again Part 12: Friends and Mentors

“To work alongside another painter, a serious one, is a great privilege”, wrote Henry Miller in To Paint is to Love Again. Having a friend who is a fellow artist means that we have someone who not only understands and appreciates our work, but who helps us learn and grow. A friend who is a …

malwina

26th October 2021

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To Paint is to Love Again, Part 11: The Healing Power of Art

Just like I don’t need an ‘inspiration’ to start painting, I don’t need to be in any particular mood either. In fact, I paint in all sorts of mood. I’ve painted in ecstasy, anger, melancholy, apathy. I’ve laughed at the easel, I’ve cried at the easel. I’ve painted in pain, both physical and emotional, I’ve …

malwina

30th March 2021

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To Paint is to Love Again, Part 10: Art and Insanity

For some years after graduating from art school, I had a variety of art jobs. I worked independently, as a team leader and a team member, in smaller and larger groups. The jobs, albeit all within the creative fields, were very different, and so was my experience in each role. But there was one common …

malwina

22nd March 2021

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To Paint is to Love Again, Part 9: The Struggle in Art

I sometimes wonder how many users on Instagram make some kind of art. I guess there must be thousands of them though when I tried googling that all I got in response was articles telling me how to get my first 1000 art Instagram followers, which frankly makes me want to eat my own head. …

malwina

12th October 2020

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To Paint is to Love Again, Part 8: Finding Inspiration

There are many questions artists are repeatedly asked. Following “What kind of artist are you?” (which I elaborated on in my previous post), another frequently asked one is “Where do you get your ideas from?”. And my usual response to that is: from everywhere. Finding inspiration happens pretty much anywhere, without a deliberate effort on …

malwina

8th September 2020

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To Paint is to Love Again, Part 7: Ingres’s Violin

“What kind of art do you do?” must be one of the questions artists are most frequently asked. It makes perfect sense, for “art” encompasses a great number of disciplines. In my case, this used to be: theatre design, art direction, graphic and motion design, animation, and various inter-disciplinary work. These days, my main focus …

malwina

27th August 2020

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To Paint is to Love Again, Part 6: Living with Paintings

When you are an artist, paintings are your children. You give birth to them, you shape them, you look after them, and there comes a day when they leave your studio. “The pity of it is that so few of us are privileged to live with our paintings”, wrote Henry Miller. Personally, I’m not sure …

malwina

1st August 2020

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To Paint is to Love Again, Part 5: The Wonder of Colour

One of the bigger frustrations painters experience is not getting things ‘right’ — this will often mean struggling to depict something in correct scale and proportions. ‘My eyes often resemble the eyes one sees in an optician’s window. (…) As for hands and feet, generally it is impossible to tell whether they are those of …

malwina

6th July 2020