The Use of Skill
in Art

Keith  O'Connor:   My Writings on Art

 

 

Last update
dec   1999
 
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This is the sixth in a series of six sections that I am developing in unison. Even though they are at the  work in progress stage I have been asked by fellow artists to present them as is. Every few days I work on one or more of them I will often edit what I have previously written.
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At this point in your reading of my writings you know that art is defined as inventing and creating compositions containg a varity of linked and sequential patterns. This section defines skill and to begin I will use some examples from water colour media. Skill  is the ability to lay in a flat wash;  the skill to lay in  a graded wash;  to skill avoid the hard edge that sometimes form around a wash. It is the skill to lay one wash upon another without disturbing the under wash. These skills are procedural. You learn the techniques and practice untill you are proficient.

Skill will give your work a finish but will not compensate for a poor composition.

I do not mean to imply that skill is restricted to developing the sense of touch as well as paitence and control in manipulating the components of your selected medium. Skill also requires a knowledge of the language of art just as a writer or poet understands the structure of sentences and paragraphs etc.
 
 

____I will continue to expand on skill______