BEYOND SEEING
My Ten Theses on Becoming an Artist
8 August 2026
Recognition does not play as great a role as it is often given credit for. It may bring joy, but only for a moment. True happiness lies in one’s own development.
Perfection is not the end of development. Once a work is finished, we begin to see its flaws. The next one will be better. That is development. That is happiness.
Those who simply copy become dependent on what they see. A realist may be an excellent copier, but that does not make them a true artist. They remain dependent on the visible world.
You cannot truly paint water, a gust of wind, or the splash of a wave directly from nature, because they change too quickly. The artist has to create them - to conceive the image rather than simply copy what is in front of them.
The Impressionists tried to capture the impression of nature as quickly as possible. You can paint in front of nature for three years, yet the best work may still emerge in the studio, from memory. A viewer cannot remain indefinitely with an impression, because an impression is a moment - much like scrolling on a phone, where another already “painted” impression immediately appears.
A better work is one that makes you stop and look for a long time. A truly strong work invites you to look again. And even then, it is not a perfect work.
The works that can hold our attention for a long time are often those created from memory and imagination.
Water is a living force that human beings cannot control. Not even the artist. We can only direct the pigment. I try to understand how water behaves. My task is to convey something that direct imitation of nature cannot capture.
Imitating other artists harms an artist’s independent development. You can certainly learn technique from another artist, but everything else must come from your own observation and your own artistic impression.
I do not consider an artist’s talent to be the ability to see something accurately. I consider it to be what they are able to retain after the act of seeing is over - and what they are able to discover from it.
