Meauring Tenacity

The English landscape painter John Constable spent a lifetime
studying clouds. Seeing them both vaporous and solid, he found
them to be the most challenging of actors. Yesterday near
Ashern, Manitoba, under the prairie sky, I entered into their
leaden tops, slid down their warming gradations and confirmed
the dimensions of their mysterious volumes. Turning my
attention to their edges, I saw that they were cut with yellow
counter-light, while subtle tones slid progressively down the
colour wheel as they moved toward grays. In addition, their
flattened underbellies were brilliantly warm where they
reflected the golden fields below. Wispy micro-cloudlet
partners added vivacity, energy and design. Still, these clouds
were lit and shaded like any art-school blocks. "When such a
simple thing is so complex," said Constable in a similar
situation, "one needs tenacity."

In degrees of tenacity, some of us are steel-toed hiking boots,
others are an old pair of flip-flops. This understanding just
may determine how far we go. Thankfully, within the creative
universe there are different personality types--the sensitive
and the insensitive, the automatically creative and the
developmentally creative. Right- and left-brain tendencies as
well as other personality quirks provide a wide range of
possibilities and expectations. Constable, the most gentle and
sensitive of men, was also tenacious. I've asked Andrew to put
up a few examples of Constable's clouds at the top of the
current clickback. See URL below.

Sometimes I think this art business is all about channelling
and focusing our tenacious natures. These days, the general
ease of life promotes playtime, laziness, goofing off and a
"let George do it" attitude. But thriving artists often have
what I call "the relentless pursuit of entitlement." I'm not
talking about the entitlement to be supported--grants,
residencies, etc. I'm talking about the entitlement to "get
good."

Getting good takes work, and tenacity shows itself best during
the process of making art. "Genius," said Jane Hopkins, "is the
infinite capacity for taking pains." These pains can be minor
and yet powerful. John Constable was among the first to
tenaciously sit out in nature and try to work out such
seemingly lesser issues as relative darkness and lightness,
plainness and complexity, form and formlessness, weakness and
strength.

Best regards,

Robert

PS: "Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well." (P.
D. Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, 1694-1773)

Esoterica: Nuances are those subtle and seldom noticed
differences occurring in nature that many artists need to bring
into their work. Nuanced work depends on observation,
understanding and application. Nuance is often the difference
between ordinary art and great art. The tenacious artist takes
the time to get it right. Good enough is not good enough.
Further, tenacity and humility can be friends: "I know very
well what I am about and that my skies have not been neglected,
though they often failed in execution--and often no doubt from
anxiety about them." (John Constable, 1776-1837)