PART II - CHAPTER X: MENTAL ATTITUDE
There is a theoretical and a practical side to art. The business of the
student is with the practical. Theories are not a part of his work. Before
any theoretical work is done there is the bald work of learning to see
facts justly, in their proper degree of relative importance; and how to
convey these facts visibly, so that they shall be recognizable to another
person.
The ideals of art are for the artist; not for the student. The student’s ideal should be only
to see quickly and justly, and to render directly and frankly.
Technique is a word which includes all the material and educational resources of
representation. The beginner need bother himself little with what is good and what is
bad technique. Let him study facts and their representation only. Choice of means and
materials implies a knowledge by which he can choose. The beginner can have no such
knowledge. Choice, then, is not for him; but to work quite simply with whatever comes
to hand, intent only on training the eye to see, the brain to judge, and the hand to
execute. Later, with the gaining of experience and of knowledge, for both will surely
come, the determination of what is best suited for the individual temperament or
purpose will work itself out naturally.
The student should not allow the theoretical basis of art to interfere with the
directness of his study of the material and the actual. Nevertheless, he should know the
fact that there is something back of the material and the actual, as well as in a general
way what that something is.
Because the student’s business is with the practical is no reason why he should remain
ignorant of everything else. It is important that he should think as a painter as well as
work as a painter. If he has no thought of what all this practical is for, he will get a false
idea of his craft. He will see, and think of, and believe in, nothing but the craftsmanship:
that which every good workman respects as good and necessary, but which the wise
workman knows is but the perfect means for the expression of thought.
Some consideration, then, of the theoretical side of art is necessary in a book of this
kind. A number of considerations arrive at the outset, about which you must make up
your mind:
Is judgment of a picture based on individual liking?
Can you hope to paint well by file your own liking only?
Is it worth your while to try to do good work?
Can you hope to do good work at all?
You must decide these questions for yourself, but you must remember that it depends
upon how you decide whether your work will be good or bad.