What Does It ReallyTake To Be An Artist?

I often tell people that creating art requires far more than skill or innate talent.

Drawing and painting are skills, much like writing, playing an instrument, or serving a tennis ball. Like any discipline, the techniques of art can be taught, learned, and honed over time through practice. I have drawn and painted for most of my life, and I suspect I will spend the rest of it working to get better.

So if talent is merely the starting line, what actually transforms someone into an artist?

1. Permission: Stepping onto an Unpaved PathThe first step isn't technical. It's actually psychological. You have to give yourself permission to dedicate your life to an uncertain path.

Being an artist means taking a risk: creating something that no one has asked for. An artist must begin working long before gaining recognition or income, creating without the security of an audience, let alone prospective buyers.

And yet, artists work anyway. The drive to create feels less like a choice and more like a necessity. We don't sit around waiting for a bolt of inspiration or the "perfect" idea. Instead, we train, formally, informally, or both. Over years of steady practice, raw talent evolves into a cohesive, recognizable visual voice.

This evolution takes time. I worked quietly for years until a close friend asked me a simple question: “When are you going to start selling your work?” Until that moment, it hadn't even occurred to me that I might be ready. That question gave me the nudge to take the next step.

2. Thought Process: Art as an Intellectual LanguageArt is not just a visual medium; it is a way of thinking. Over time, an artist builds a personal visual language to express how they see the world—and why it matters.
Deciding to make art is only the beginning. It's a bit like deciding to become a lawyer: once that choice is made, you still have to select your specific area of practice. What type of landscape? Which medium? What emotional tone?

A painter's vocabulary is built from foundational elements: color, texture, shape, value, and medium. We develop this language by spending countless hours at the easel and studying the masters who came before us.

For example, while the radical shifts in perspective and color application developed by the French Impressionists  frequently occupies my thoughts, my own focus leans toward still life rather than plein air landscapes. I use those historical influences to inform my work, even as I carve out my own quiet space.

A painter’s chosen language dictates the emotional weight of their work. Concern over environmental degradation calls for a certain palette and style; celebrating the quiet majesty of nature demands another.

3. Observation: Finding the Spark in the EverydayThrough close, sustained observation, artists discover tiny moments of magic and translate them onto canvas for others to share.

This isn't about waiting for a muse. When you practice the act of truly looking, you begin to see beyond obvious shapes and colors. You notice how light hits an ordinary object, or how subtle color shifts create rhythm across a surface.

Much like poetry, a painting conveys both obvious themes and quiet, layered messages:

• Scale and brushwork guide your eye across the canvas.
• Color relationships set the emotional temperature.
• Intentional shifts elevate a pleasant image into something deeply compelling.

My goal is always to create a subtle "jolt," by taking ubiquitous, everyday items in a still life and reveal the wonder hidden within them, inviting you to pause and look again.

The Unseen Value Behind the Canvas

Are permission, thought process, and observation everything it takes? Not quite, but they are the bedrock of an artist’s mindset.
As an art lover or prospective collector, keeping these unseen elements in mind changes how you experience a gallery or studio. The journey from initial desire to mastery is long and quiet. Not unlike a musician performing on stage or a writer publishing a book, an artist’s years of trial, error, and refinement happen entirely out of sight.

When you feel that unmistakable frisson, a spark of connection with a piece of art, remember that countless hours of unseen thought, observation, and discipline brought that moment to life.

It is precisely that invisible effort that creates the joy, curiosity, and awe that stops you in your tracks... and invites you to bring the story home to your own walls.