Three Things you need to be an Artist

As a former student at Blackpool and the Fylde College, I was invited to be guest speaker at the Young Artist of the Year Award 2013.

This is what I said.......

Since leaving Blackpool and the Fylde college 17 years ago, I consider myself very lucky in having been able to continue exploring my art.

Tonight I would like to tell you of the three things that have made that possible, the same three things I believe you will need if you want to be an artist.

Firstly, you need passion. By passion, I mean a love to make art. Regardless of if anyone likes it or whether it sells. Just a love to spend time doing art. Passion.

Secondly, you need support. The idea of the artist as some sort of hermit genius is rubbish. You won’t last long as an artist without the support of your family and fellow artists.

Finally, I will talk about a dirty word in art school. The “M” word. Money. You need it to do art.

Passion comes from you. You need passion.

Support comes from those around you. You need support.

Money. Well, of course, money grows on trees.

1. PASSION (A LOVE TO DO ART)

How did I become an artist?

It wasn’t like I met a great artist and thought “How cool – I’ll be an artist!”

I just loved to draw and paint.

And, just like you, because you spend time doing something you like to do, you get a little bit better at it than those who don’t. And then it gets recognised. “Oh, Norman can draw.”

“Wow, that’s a great drawing.” That makes you feel good, so you do more.

And then people might even PAY you to do art! By high school I was doing the drawings for my brother’s geography coursework. I was painting schoolfriends’ neighbour’s dogs and cats and hamsters for a few pounds.

Passion. A love to do art. Not “I’m going to be a great artist” but “I love to do art.”

TALENT

But don’t artists need talent? Aren’t artists BORN talented? Isn’t it in their genes?

My Dad was a farmer and then worked at Leyland Motors. My Mum worked at Damps, an old hardware store in Leyland. Then she raised three boys and then she milked cows for 15 years. I have two older brothers, both engineers. As far as I know, none of my family are remotely artistic. If I was a born artist, there was some sort of flukey genetics going on.

Everyone is born talented. Some people can do mental arithmetic, others can remember names. Some people can see when someone is upset and say just the right words to comfort them. Everyone has talents. The trick is matching your talents to what you want to do.

You want to know my talent?

I’ll tell you what was written on my junior school report. I quote “Norman is painfully slow and deliberate in all he does.”

“That’s a talent?” You say

Yes, that’s my talent. I wasn’t a born artist, but I was born with the love of spending time on things, of being completely absorbed in a task and doing it to the best of my ability. As a child, I would spend hours drawing pictures of footballers, completely engrossed.

Every young person with work in this exhibition has enough talent to be an artist. But not all of you will, or would even want to, become artists. Let me tell you why.

Talent is only the beginning. What you need more than talent is passion – A love to do art.

Passion develops as you grow as an artist. It wasn’t until I was at University in Newcastle that I really realised how much of an artistic temperament I have.

Artists tend to be deep thinkers. They are sensitive to life, they feel things deeply. They can be melancholic and moody (even beyond teenage years.) They don’t want to just go the way everyone else is going. You know why? Because they have a passion. They are not satisfied with life the way it is and they won’t just sit there and take it, they feel it deeply and they must express it somehow.

It’s like a volcano. More than a few days without creating and the pressure builds. I get quiet and grumpy. I know that these ideas, this feeling, will never come back if I don’t express it now.

So you hold it in until you get to the studio. You have no idea what you’re going to make, but you need to make something. The volcano erupts, as it were, and artwork is created, forever the moment of creation preserved in paint or clay like the magma which sets as it cools.

That’s passion. It becomes part of your identity.

You already have the talent. What you need is passion. And that starts with a love to do art.

STYLE

Don’t you need to find a style before you can be an artist?

No, you already have a style, it’s already in you. It’s in making art that we bring it out.

Style is not something you choose or do consciously. It is the result of the unique combination of your background, your talents, your interests and your influences. Style comes from inside you and can’t really be controlled.

A class of students can be painting the same model, with the same instructions and the same materials. Yet every painting turns out utterly different. You are unique. You have your style already within you.

The worst thing you can do is say “Right, this is my style and I’m sticking to it.” Style is a lifelong discovery.

Degas said “I’m glad to say I haven’t found my style yet. I’d be bored to death.”

The only way to bring out your style is to do lots of artwork and find out what you like to do and what you do best. You might look at your artwork and think that every piece is different. But other people will recognise your style in them all.

Your style is what you do most naturally when you’re not thinking about style. Make every effort to get away from your natural strengths, to learn new things. Your style will still be there.

So don’t worry about finding a style. You already have the one you need, so get to work.

You have the talent, you have your style already in you. You just need the passion.

If you have passion, you won’t wait until you have the perfect place to work, the right weather, the right materials.

I used to paint in my bedroom but I must have started to make a mess because soon enough I was banished to the garden shed. That was my first studio. My first easel was a stepladder.

You have to be stubborn, fiercely protective of your creative time.

Passion is the only thing that will keep you creating when you feel pressures of money, guilt and indifference. The only guaranteed job perk of being an artist is that you get to spend time making art, so you’d better LOVE making art.

2. SUPPORT

No matter how passionate you are, you won’t be an artist for long without support.

PARENTS

When it came to doing a Foundation course, I got places at a couple of colleges closer to home, but knew that Blackpool was where I wanted to come. So Mum and Dad paid the extra travel costs out of their own pocket and I took the one and a half hour bus ride morning and night.

I could never have been an artist without my parents’ support. I don’t mean they paid for everything- they didn’t. I think they still find it a bit strange what I do for a living. But I never heard those words “Why don’t you get a proper job?”

SCHOOL

Encouragement is essential. Art is very personal and we take criticism of our art personally. These days I teach people in their 60s who remember word for word the thing their art teacher said that stopped them from pursuing their passion. Art teachers – remember – art is personal. We take criticism personally.

ART SCHOOL

If all you need is passion, support and money to be an artist, why do people bother going to art school? Or even PAYING to go to art school.

Because art school is the most supportive environment there is in which to find yourself as an artist. And artists need support.

In the real world, if you say “I was thinking of wrapping a bridge in plastic.” You will hear “Are you mad?” “Where will you get the money?” In art school, you may hear “That’s an interesting idea. What colour plastic might you use?”

My advice to you is this; If you go to art school, go to one that will support what you want to do with your art, not one that will try to make you into someone else. Look at the art that the teachers do. Every piece of advice they give you will be to make your art more like theirs.

The tutors you work with are far more important than the name of the institution or the qualification you receive. Good teachers are those that inspire you with a passion for art by their own enthusiasm and belief. 

Remember- the art school is there to help you do what you want to do.

In art school your teachers will contradict each other. That is healthy. It means that you need to find the right answer for yourself and develop a strong personal viewpoint.

However, I hear too many times “I did my degree and got a First (class Honours). But I was persuaded to do this kind of art and I didn’t do what I really wanted to.” That is tragic.

A good art school is worth it. Nine years after graduating, I had artist’s block. I was isolated. There were no artists around me who could challenge me. So I took my life savings and ploughed them into a year at an American art school. Thankfully, I got two scholarships for the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. I remember, having been given a tour of the Academy, America’s oldest art school with its huge cast hall and mind blowing facilities, standing on the sidewalk with the absolute conviction “I HAVE to come here.” It was worth every penny of the $22000.

I came home broke and utterly inspired. A good art school will leave you with challenges and inspiration which will feed you for years. It’s no wonder that even the most successful artists teach part time. There is no more stimulating environment than a good art school.

ARTISTS

When you graduate, you leave that supportive environment. You walk off the end of a plank. All that wonderful support disappears beneath your feet and you have to swim. You need new support, or your artist self will drown in the sea of responsibilities and apathy.

The year I graduated, Norman Travis, my teacher at Blackpool, made the trip up to see my degree show. He told me of an Artist in Residence job at King Edward VII and Queen Mary School, Lytham. It was a fabulous year.

Buoyed by the experience, I became self employed as an artist in 2001 and rented my studio, Unit 113 Oyston Mill. I was proud to be, as I believed, the only artist in Preston.

I soon realised that the romantic ideal of the isolated genius is not much fun. In fact, no artist can get by without the support of fellow artists. It is no coincidence that throughout art history, artists have hung out together. There are photos of Lucien Freud, Frank Auerbach, Michael Andrews and Francis Bacon having a meal together. Degas, Monet, Manet, Cezanne, Van Gogh etc – they were all friends. This was their support network. Luckily, it didn’t take long to discover my network in Preston, literally hundreds of artists, as there must be in every city.

This might sound strange, but you also need the help of artists who are no longer with us. You will only be as good as the artists you surround yourself with, but we can go to museums and spend time with the greatest artists that ever lived.

Never be afraid to steal ideas from other artists, living or dead. Nobody is original. American painter Wayne Thiebaud said to his students “Everything I do I stole from someone else, and if you’re not careful I’ll steal from you.”

Another thing – share your ideas. “Artists aren’t magicians; there’s no penalty for revealing your secrets.” (Austin Kleon)

I must mention in concluding this section the incredible support I’ve received from people who collect my art. Without them, and the people who pay for my art courses, I wouldn’t be able to continue. They have invested in me and in return for their support I try to be the best artist and teacher I can be. But that leads us into the final thing that an artist needs, and that is money.

3. MONEY

If it’s money you’re after, there are lots of easier ways of getting it than by making art.

Let’s deal with the old cliche. Artists starve in a garret.

At some point, every artist has to answer this question; how do I arrange my life so that I can do my art and make enough money? There are as many answers as there are artists.

It is one of the reasons many artists, even successful artist, still teach. A small regular income takes the pressure off working in the studio.

I know an artist who makes £100,000 a year doing artwork he knows is not the truest thing he can do. I know artists who barely scrape by but get to do the artwork they really believe in. Those are just two answers to the question of money.  

There is a nice idea that if you hide away in your studio and make incredibly sincere artwork, galleries will come knocking on your door. The fact is, to be a successful gallery artist, you might need to spend as much as half of your time marketing and running your business.

The key is; do great work and put it where people can see it. (Austin Kleon)

When I do the artwork I believe in and somebody responds to it in a way which shows it has spoken to them, that is success. When they also buy it, that’s even better. 

SUMMARY

You only need three things to be an artist; passion, support and money.

I will finish by sharing what I have found to be the most useful piece of art advice I have ever received. Given by Scott Noel, my teacher in America.

Your artwork is never as good or as bad as you think it is.

Let me say that again.Your work is never as good or as bad as you think it is.

You do a new piece and you think “This is amazing – I’m going to be recognised as the great artist I am…I can just picture my work in the Tate Gallery, a huge banner….”STOP! Your work is not as good as you think it is. Keep working, carry on, it will get better.

On another day, you think your work is terrible- you might as well give up –NO! It’s not as bad as you think it is – carry on. It’s worth finishing. You will look at it in a month or a year and realise “Actually, it’s pretty good.”

Either way, the outcome of the advice is this; “Carry On”. And that’s all you need to do.

www.NormanLongArtist.com