The #1 Reason Why Your Abstract Art Fails (& How To Fix It) + BIG NEWS!

I'm seeing a lot of people talking about expensive materials, but when I watched the video, its not about price but about quality and intentionality.

Please remember that this is one person‘s opinion. There may be artist who are extremely prolific. Do incredible work, but do not take them to galleries. Perhaps they paint because they can’t not paint as any true artist it does and they don’t really care whether the work sells or not. This does not make them a hobby artist just because they don’t put their work in galleries. I think the true artist is basically a person who can’t not create no matter what medium they are using and why use, whatever is at hand, or that they can afford.

Using the most expensive paint will not help if there is no vision or authenticity behind it.

I once heard someone answer your question regarding how to tell the difference between “real” painting and “amateur “ painting. First, look at a million paintings. After that it’s pretty easy. As far as store bought materials, if Gerhard Richter bought a pre-stretched canvas and a few tubes of paint, he could produce a painting on par with his best work. Real art is made by real artists. Quality is subjective but consensus tends to bolster itself until a painter is considered to be an artist. I’ve been painting for over forty years. I build my panels, stretch my canvas, mix my own colors, and have never considered what I do to be a hobby. My paintings attempt to capture what I’m feeling at the moment. Some succeed some don’t. I’m hesitant to call myself an artist but the fact that I’ve been able to continue doing this convinces me I’m successful. I like seeing your dog in the video.

Beautiful is beautiful no matter what.

What makes great art are rules of composition. Buying expensive paint and grounds often works against ‘great’ art. Did Basquiat work with expensive paints? Van Gogh? I was told Hans Hofmann used to take paint he didnt use and deliberately spread it over his canvas “ like $hit”. And we can find cigarettes in pollacks later work not sure if that was deliberate. Doesnt matter what quality your paint is . What matters is if you study composition . So buy a book instead of an expensive cadmium red and pick up Rudolph Arnheims seminal “ art and visual perception” , Hans’s hoffmans concept of push-pull. Earle Lorans study of cezannes composition , Gilles deleuzes “logic of sensation “ where he analyzes Francis Bacon. Kandinsky’s ppint/line/ plane. If you think buying expensive paint is more important than learning about composition, then you must think buying art is the same as making it. And it’s not.

"You go to an auction house, let's say Christie's right, and they bring out a nice Picasso, and it's dead quiet. Nobody says a peep. Then, as soon as they announce the price, there's a huge applause 👏🏽 from the crowd. You'd think they'd applaud the artist, like what a great painter he is, yes? Nah, they'd rather applaud the price tag....go figure." -Fran Lebowitz 😂😂😂

Congratulations on your new assistant! I think when you look at a series of works by any abstract artist, it creates its own context and you can start to get a sense of the artist's underlying philosophy.

I must say, I'm a bit disappointed by this advice. Not to oversimplify what you said, but it sounds as if you are saying that the first and foremost argument (or point of analysis) when distinguishing the abstract art of a master painter and the scribbles of a child is the originality and material quality of the paint? So, correct me if Im wrong, but it seems to me that what this says is that there is basically no striking, immediate, tangible, visionary difference between rudimentary scribbles and deep intellectual abstraction, except to look at the tools and materials (and their combination) used. This, imo, is a gross undermining and even insult to the works of great abstraction. Its like calling abstract paintings no better than the scribbles of a child, save for the price tags of their supplies. What about the ideas of the author and what their abstraction is meant to convey? What about the meticulous structuring of the composition? What about the subtle and purposeful color-mixing? Or, hey, what about the subject and object of the painting itself?! A child will scribble non-sense, basic subjects like: a house, a flower, a dog, a rainbow... Whereas a painter will try to convey emotion and much deeper meanings. I really thought that you would speak about some glaring aspects of composition, palette complexity, brushwork, themes and intellectual challenges overcome and captured in deceptively naivistic forms. Something that seasoned and educated curators can spot instantly. Not tell us that the first thing a curator does is inspect if the supplies are stock. What does that mean - if you use cheap stock supplies, no matter how good your painting is, your art is not worth it - and if you use expensive, self-made, improvised supplies; than no matter what kind of garbage you paint, your art will be valued?

First off, CONGRATULATIONS! It sounds like you're describing the age old question between what is art and what is craft. From my own experience I see them on a gray scale for the most part where one end is artistic expression and the other craftsmanship... but where a good piece of either art or craft requires that one must have a solid familiarity with both artistic expression and quality workmanship. An artist works to master the subject and the craftsperson to master the materials, while both need to find the balance that best works for their creations.

Your “little family” is beautiful! Thank you for giving clarity on this subject. It’s funny… before I could afford to buy the best paints, gallery wrapped canvases or all the other supplies we think we need, I used whatever was laying around my grandparents garage, including wood planks, old tarps, wood stains, waxes, paints and other household materials. The things I created back then were, by far, my most original works.

I used to also be from Belgium (Antwerp) and have been living in the US for over 7 years now. I used to have a huge affection for original mid century furniture (still do) but now i mainly collect mid century abstract expressionism. The most expensive painting i ever bought was $35K And i have quite a few that i paid around $10K. I fully get it, and like to think that i have a trained eye. The answer is that there is no simple answer as to why some paintings are very valuable and others aren't, it's just a feeling. I have no issue paying a lot of money for a painting of an artist i've never heard of or even one that is completely unknown, the value lays in the strengt and presence of the work itself and one should trust their intuition and only buy what you love. There is some merit in what you say, but at the same time someone like Miro can simply put a pencil scribble on a piece of torn paper and it has power.

Your new assistant is gorgeous, Julian! Glad seeing Perrier is getting equal attention too. Thanks for your extraordinary videos and see you in 2024.

Thank you for everything you do and congrats on the new member of the family!

Pigment straight from the tube is that hue's best possible chroma. Palate mixed paints often quickly lose chroma and tend toward black. It completely depends on what effect the artist intends, whether to use paint from the tube, or palate mix.

Congratulations on your new assistant 🎉. She came just in time to help ring in the New Year. I'm thankful for all the information this channel has offered to artists 💜.

thank you very much for this advice, it is very useful as yours usually are. today Im learning how to express myself in the abstract art universe, but years ago I worked as a sound engineer in commercials and movies, that's why Im always paying attention to the production of any video I see.. and for me it is getting harder and harder to witness how your content and audience are getting better and bigger, but the technical quality of your videos is not growing at the same rate: the lighting and the sound quality of your videos need a big push to keep up with the concept you are working on. This is not a destructive critique, just a reminder that here in youtube the technical level of proffessional videos is very high, investing in a good lavalier microphone and pro-lighting would make a great improvement in your already great content. thank you again and congratulations for becoming a father!!

No matter what keep creating and making art, u don’t have to make it big, just to enjoy it.

Aww congrats on your baby. Many blessings. And thank you so much for for your videos, I truly feel like I too am involved in the art world.

Congratulations to your new addition!!! Thanks for the conference call and the powerful advice and report. I have a lot to consider and even more to do as I prepare for the future of my work.