Important Principles of Art

Harley Brown’s fascinating things no one else will tell you

Harley Brown’s fascinating things no one else will tell you

What got me really going as an artist was learning and practicing the basics of art: perspective, tone, design, anatomy and shapes. Color eventually came but under the canopy of those necessary fundamentals. All the arts are driven similarly. Performance, music, writing and dance. I remember my writing classes at school; piano lessons starting with one note and then two, and eventually Chopin mazurkas. I once went to a ballroom dance class and was astounded at the difficult intricacies involved. The arts must be taken seriously, surrounded with the joy of doing.

In my world, visual arts must go through the rigors of steady development of skills. What eventually emerged was myself. Note: we’ll not find ourselves without pressing ahead thoroughly and relentlessly with what we love. You and me—art.

I keep telling art students to quit trying to be different. Different for its own sake. I learned this firsthand when I tried dumping “old fashioned principles,” so I’d be unshackled by traditions and open to new, personal approaches. When we try this, it won’t come naturally, but will be a façade. Personal approach in art happens when basic foundations are built, and by that, you know what I mean. Finally, being your own self in art means that your art is “different.” That’s the “different” the world wants to see.

How do we put personal emotion into something that appears representational? First, we have to dump the usual jargon about realism being photographic. To me the only similarity between a photo and a painting is that we recognize the subject; for example, a boat sailing or a mountain against a blue sky. In truth, there’s not a square inch of a landscape painting that doesn’t have the artist’s very personal passion and skills. That artist is