Too Cute!

A few weeks ago, one of my favourite painters, Nicki Ault, posted on her blog, two stages of a painting of the view from her studio window. 

Something she said about adding the snowflakes in the second stage, made me think about how we want our artwork to be perceived.

“I do have a bit of a fear that they make the painting a bit cute."

Why was Nicki afraid of the painting being ‘cute’? It’s a term that is used pretty widely in the world of art and design, particularly in relation to greeting card design. In that case it’s usually a compliment so why is ‘cute’ something we try to avoid in the world of Fine Art?

I looked up some dictionary definitions and wasn’t too surprised to find that the word isn’t even included in some of my older English dictionaries. I think it’s only through the internet that the word has become part of our UK vocabulary, though my mother did use it in its original, now outdated sense, meaning ‘shrewd’ ‘ingenious’ or ‘clever’.

Definitions I found included:

• attractive
• pretty
• charming
• delightfully pretty or dainty

All quite positive meanings  - so why are we afraid of our work being dubbed ‘cute’?

I think one of the definitions I found, hints at the answer:

‘obviously contrived to charm’

This, for me, at least, suggests something less ‘worthy’, something shallow or insincere, maybe with overtones of deception, manipulation, not something that came from the heart!

To me this is fine for a greeting card, which is likely to be ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ but not for a piece of art that we hope will stand the test of time, the sort of work that, as in Van Gogh’s case, may not be appreciated until many years later!

Nothing wrong with 'cute' 

‘Cute’ is a word that is often quite appropriately applied to small children and baby animals. But then the cute child grows up – and rightly so! – and their ‘cuteness’ fades away. Again, this may be a clue as to why ‘cute’ is not something that a fine artist like Nicki would take as a compliment. It’s a bit like comparing a catchy pop song that is top of the hit parade one week then fades to obscurity, with the lasting work of classical composers or even the work of the real ‘greats’, like John Lennon and others.

There’s nothing wrong with ‘cute’ in the right context but I can understand why Nicki wanted to avoid it in her snow painting.

How to avoid it? I don’t have an answer except that every artist probably has to sense for themselves the whereabouts of the fine line that separates the ‘cute’ from the ‘non-cute’!

The dictionary gives ‘homely’ and ‘ugly’ as the opposites to ‘cute’. I think this is rather limiting. A work of art can avoid being cute without being ugly, though I do think that there is plenty of room for ‘ugly’ in fine art.

I think Nicki clearly avoided allowing the snowflakes to make her painting ‘cute’. What do you think?

The Race of the Roses

There I was, wondering which of my climbing roses would be first to bloom this year - it's usually the 'Dreaming Spires' and it's looking promising, covered in buds and almost ready to open -

But the 'Albertine', the one that usually flowers for my birthday in June, is a close contender this year -

But it was only while I was taking these photos that I noticed that the 'Alchemist' has quietly pipped both of them at the post!

Nobody seems to have told it that it's still only April!

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The Trouble with Boys....

NEW on 

Mugs, Mousepads & More

The Knots Prayer

I thought this was worth sharing -

Happy Easter!

Is Your Art Original?

I’m sure we all like to think that our art is entirely original.

The idea of copying someone else’s work or ‘borrowing’ their ideas is something that has probably been instilled in us as not only wrong, but particularly despicable, since our schooldays because it is cheating!

When I first started designing greeting cards for sale, I began in my usual ‘pen and wash’ style – and then I discovered Quentin Blake! Worse still, I read that many had tried to copy Quentin Blake's style but that nobody had ever really succeeded.  And here I was doing something very much like an inferior version of the great man’s style! How awful! I became terribly self-conscious as I struggled to make my little drawings ‘not like Quentin Blake’  - and that’s one of the reasons I switched to other styles.

But really I needn’t have worried so much. Unless one sets out to make careful copies, I think one’s own individual style will inevitably, always show through. As Robert Henri says:

‘Do not worry about your originality. You could not get rid of it even if you wanted to.’

On the other hand, I think it’s equally inevitable that we will be influenced by seeing the work of other artists, usually unconsciously. I know that I pick up ideas and influences ‘by osmosis’ and I think that’s perfectly legitimate. It’s the way that ideas are developed, that trends emerge and move us forward, both individually and collectively. It’s extremely rare that anything we do is likely to be 100% new, even though we may like to think our work is totally original. Down through the ages, we’ve tended to build on what’s gone before and give it our personal ‘twist’; it's perhaps the difference between being ‘unique’ and being ‘original’.

Sometimes we see another artist’s work and think, ‘I’d like to create something like that.’ Is this copying? It could be; but more often it just a prompt to try something new, a ‘giving ourselves’ permission’ to do something bold and different now that we’ve seen that something similar works for another artist.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. Picasso describes the real ‘copying’ we need to watch out for:

‘Success is dangerous. One begins to copy oneself, and to copy oneself is more dangerous than to copy others. It leads to sterility.’

Have you ever suspected that you were beginning to ‘copy’ yourself? Have you ever produced a painting that has been much admired, or a design that has sold well, and decided to do more of the same? I have!

I think the ‘sterility’ that Picasso is referring to is that, once we find a winning formula and stick to it, our progress grinds to a halt. We no longer explore uncharted territory but stick to the safe ground that we know.

Maybe we need to do this kind of ‘production line’ painting sometimes to earn our living but I think we know, in our heart of hearts, that we have within us a  pressing need to grow and develop and that ‘copying ourselves’ is no part of that process!

Welcome, New Followers - and Artybuzz!

Two things – first of all a very BIG WELCOME to all new followers and an equally BIG THANK YOU to all of you who take the trouble to leave your comments. All comments are very much appreciated as long as they are respectful. So don’t be shy, have your say – even if you disagree with what I've written!

Brecon Beacons

Secondly, the unexpectedly positive comments on my series of tree paintings last month has encouraged me to think again about making my pastel paintings available as prints. Some years ago I printed and sold prints myself, using my A3 printer. But then I discovered that the colour faded quite quickly and stopped. Now I have a better printer but it doesn’t print A3, which is about the size of the originals.

So I have signed up with Artybuzz, a UK print-on-demand website, and uploaded a few of my images there. There is a maximum file size and most of the scans of my pastel paintings are too big and will need some work on re-sizing. But I’m a bit concerned about whether the site is actually still active! I asked a question about the re-sizing through the contact form as I was puzzled as to how they could produce large prints from such small files. But I didn’t receive any reply. So I looked them up on facebook and twitter and found there had been no activity since last summer, which set the alarm bells ringing!

Does anyone reading this use Artybuzz? And if so, do you know whether it is still functioning – and whether anyone makes sales through the site? Another thing that has puzzled me is that I can’t find anything on the website about ‘payment’!!! But if the site is no longer operational, that doesn’t really matter!


Click here to see what I've uploaded so far!

Vote for Ethel!

Please help 94 yr old Ethel to win the competition by voting for her!

Details at 
Not Getting a Real Job....

(She doesn't have much family or many contacts and that may well disadvantage her)

Her painting is great too!

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