A Matter of Taste

This morning as I looked through several of my websites, I started thinking about "tastes". I don't mean the kind you enjoy/not enjoy with you tongue. I mean the kind that every person innately has. Are we born with it, is it something we acquire along the way? I think it is the later. Some times we look at something whether it be a painting or a new dress and immediately like/dislike it, but can not put your finger on why. Could that be taste?

Most likely it is something that you can not learn in a workshop. I look through lots and lots of paintings daily. I critique and admire as I go along. Some are riveting while others just ok. If one goes down the check list of artistic elements and it passes what else is there if not just plain, old taste. "Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder", is an expression that is used to describe taste. Yes, it is. That is why some like it, some not so much.

When creating, follow what you find fitting and don't change because others think they would like to see it in another way. Ask yourself, "Who am I painting for anyway"? You have to make yourself happy first. If others follow, then so be it.

In competitions, many great paintings rise to the top but only a handful get chosen. After the judge goes through the element checklist and makes his/her piles of those that passed/failed, it is a the judges pure taste that comes into account. I had an instructor who told me of a personal story of his that a painting he entered initially did not make the cut in one competition but he entered it again and won first prize. Go figure. So, lesson be learned, don't be disheartened if your prized painting does not win.