“I don’t do landscape art. I use landscape as a means to create a template and a subject from which I can experiment in the studio. … You have to learn things about your own work and question what you’re doing. And so, in order to solve problems in a painting I have to go through a list of questions and analyse it. But the main thing is you have to just keep on working. There’s always risks involved but you can’t be static. You’ve got to attempt something different to move forward. The person that you’re competing against is yourself.”
Barbara Rae, judge’s video for Scottish Landscape awards 2023
We’re typically our harshest art critics, so how about we turn our picky judgements into a list of challenges for ourselves rather than a lament? Along with a longer-than-we’d-like timescale for tackling them, because we typically underestimate how much time we need to put in too. Compare your art today with your art last month, last year, not yesterday.
