Top, Millet, bottom, Van Gogh.
One of the things we artists have to deal with is the admonition from parents and friends that we’re not supposed to copy. In their minds, all art has to be altogether original or it’s somehow fraudulent.
What they mix up are the concepts of originality with that of craft. In many ways the former can’t be taught, but the latter must be. In fact, originality without craft is generally not very impressive.
So, how do you learn if you don’t copy?
Tell me any other field where this is not absolutely expected. I would hope my doctor learned his art from a whole host of other doctors before he starts getting original on me.
So do we think we’re somehow guilty of forgery if we take some other painting and copy it? Ok, if we try to sell it as if it were that original, that’s illegal, but that’s not what I’m talking about. What I’m talking about is for the sake of learning. And if someone does want to buy it, then you sign it with both your names, like “Hyatt, after Van Gogh.”
Vincent Van Gogh copied a number of other artists, by the way, like his idol, Jean-Francois Millet. As I think about it, he didn’t include Millet’s name with his in the signature. But then his was different enough. He was learning from Millet but applying his own approach too.
And that’s how it almost always is. You learn from another by copying another, but in the end, it’s still you. In can hardly be otherwise. As much as you are different than anyone else, so will be your work.
In the meantime, know that the masters copied their masters, and you should do it to. It’s true in all the arts, and everything else. You’ll get better faster.
Without it you can hardly get started.
Our Lives Together
Its About Life
5:38 am
I like this attitude about “copying”. I agree and that goes with many things (speaking, writing, even hanging drywall). “It can hardly be otherwise”…nice quote.
Pastor Adam Barton,
Akron, Ohio
5:39 am
Good to hear you say that. I keep thinking that a team of lawyers is going to show up in my studio and confiscate all the paintings that I’ve done that are copied from Hyatt Moore works. Oh, and another bunch from Robert Burridge’s team if lawyers. And Claire Bull…the list goes on and on.
And good to hear that if I don’t sell those pieces, that I’m OK too. I have never sold a painting (it’s not why I do it). Heck, I don’t even give them away unless someone asks specifically for a piece. The way I look at it, if I give a painting as a gift then they might somehow feel obligated to hang it, even if they hate it.
But if you come into my house and really like something I’ve done, it is yours.
I’ve done a couple of “commissioned” pieces. Commissioned in that the person liked what I had done but wanted more red or something else and so I did one just for them. Those were gifts too.
I’ve given several pieces to be used in “Silent Auctions” as a fundraiser for one benevolent agency or another. It has been a somewhat interesting phenomenon that they always seem to go for about $200. Maybe I should sell a few.
Nah…I think I’ll just keep painting.
By the way, Christmas gifts for a lot of neighbors and friends was a small Christmas tree painting. I never mass produced anything and I didn’t start with this one (I completed each one before moving on to the next one) but it was interesting to see the evolution of the 16 that I did of essentially the same thing.
So maybe I should start signing Hyatt Moore pieces “Hyatt Moore as interpreted by joeblack.” How would that work?
Anyway, I paint for joy and therapy and expression.
Merry Christmas.
9:29 am
And then there’s music. Out of my 40 or so student-base, maybe 3 have the raw, free-spirited gift of originality to compose. All the rest of us duplicate someone else’s piece. It’s been that way through the ages, and is the mark of classical piano to this day. The personality and color comes out in the execution, with one’s own capacity for tonal range and dynamic. We all glean from styles and tastes of others, I think it’s perfectly natural. So, paint on, Hyatt, original image or not. We’re all blessed in the end! And a very, Merry Christmas to you and your family. “The thrill of hope, a weary world rejoices.” (O, Holy Night)
12:45 pm
Dear Hyatt:
Thank you for clearing this up for me. I love to copy paintings, but never try to sell them.
Trying to copy Jesus’s love, attidude and life is another story. I try and am very thankful that He is so forgiving.
A very happy and blessed Christmas to you and your family,
Ursula
6:54 am
Good to see this Hyatt, as I was always told, you can’t copy someone’s paintings or paint from someone’s photo because they can come back and sue you! So, I am glad to hear you standing up for this and what you say here makes perfect sense! Thank you! and Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to you and your family! Blessings! Lisa
10:06 am
and then there are quilts, love all the wonderful old patterns handed down through the years…The magical part comes with our sense of color and expression….smile