Intuition In Art

I had a student pose to me an interesting quandary in class the other day. I was asked to critique a painting. No backstory to the painting at all. Just tell me what you think of this piece. The artwork itself was very nondescript. Abstract in nature with a hint of what might be deemed a landscape. There is no discernible colour palette, just a mash of jumbled-up shapes. I told her it was a very confusing piece and wondered where she was going with it.

Here was her answer. "I just finished a two-day workshop with an artist who was teaching painting based on painting using your intuition." She continued to say that she was very interested in breaking out of her usual ways of painting and wanted to be more free. She went on to say that she found the workshop very frustrating as she wasn't sure what she was drawing upon. This painting was the best of the bunch she said and yet is complete rubbish. "What am I missing? You have said often that you paint from intuition. How are you doing that?" I could sense her frustration. Painting from intuition does not come easily.

Though I do use intuition when I paint, "Painting from intuition" is a style of painting that I don’t wholly agree with. Most of the books you read and the classes you take on painting from intuition don’t work. For the most part, it’s a lazy way of painting. Most of the paintings you will get from this will be mediocre at best.

Intuition is born out of experience. The ability to use intuition, our finely honed instincts based on expertise, experience, and good judgment become critical to our decision-making. At its best, intuition is a powerful form of pattern recognition, something human brains are wired to do.

Basically, everything I read says don’t use intuition for stuff you don’t know about. From this definition then intuition is a learned behaviour only to be used on what we know. All the books on painting intuitively won’t help you unless you already know how to paint. The more you practice and work at art the more you store this knowledge and it can used from the intuits.

Imagine you're going to learn to play tennis and your coach says here is a racket and some fuzzy balls, Now I will hit a ball to you and you use your intuition to send it back to me. Without any pointers, I'm pretty sure every shot you take will send the ball all over the place. Soon you will be frustrated. At this point, I would find a different instructor. A coach that will show them the basics to start. Stance, grip, etc.

Intuition is not a learned behaviour. It is born out of experience. The level of intuition you have will only be matched to the level of experience you have gained. Sorry to say but the academia must come first and intuition to follow.

From the thousands of critiques I have done I will say that the people who need help with a piece of their work and are trying to “loosen up” can’t because they have not learned the basics well enough to branch out. It’s the old “only when you fully understand the rule can you break it”. Once you're very comfortable with the rudiments of painting then your intuition will begin to kick in.

I do believe that you can hone your intuition by using it more but again I stress that intuition only comes from experience. If you continually ignore that little voice inside your head that is speaking to you, then soon it gets tired of talking and will become silent and it gives up. The more you listen to that little voice and do what it says the more it will happen and the louder it becomes.

Here are famous artists who used intuition to paint. As you will see they started out from a vastly different place but along that long road they built up their knowledge allowing them to use their intuition and break out.

Pablo Picasso:

Picasso was a huge proponent of letting go. Lose your thoughts, paint like a child, and se your intuition to guide you. One must remember that not only did he go to art school his father was a darn fine artist in his own right and was continually helping Picasso. He made a living painting birds, game animals and other wildlife. Picasso started art classes when he was just seven, then went on to Madrid's Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando where he studied.

Early Picasso

Later Picasso

Claude Monet:

Though Monet spoke highly of using intuition as some of his sources for painting one must remember that he did attend the the Havre Secondary School of the Arts and received formal education in the arts. He was well-received as a character artist when he first started out.

Early Monet

Later Monet

Édouard Manet:

From 1850 to 1856, Manet studied under the academic painter Thomas Couturee. Mr. Couturee couraged his students to paint contemporary life, though he would eventually be horrified by Manet's choice of lower-class and "degenerate" subjects such as The Absinthe Drinker.

In his spare time, Manet copied such as Velasquez and Titan in the Louvre. Late in his life as his eye site was failing he would paint flowers brought to him by his wife in small vases or in a glass of water. Though he could barely see he said most of this is just my inner sense of knowing what to do. Well, my friend, that comes from many years of hard study.

Early Manet

Mid Manet

Later Manet

Wassily Kandinsky:

Although Wassily Kandinsky was a fairly loose painter, to begin with, he spoke of how intuition, inner necessity and fervour of spirit led him to paint more non-representational things. He didn’t go to art school until he was 30, leaving university where he was working on an economics degree. Again before Mr. intuition kicked in Mr. Kandinsky went to art school and got some formal education.

Early Kandinsky

Kandinsky Later

Gustav Klimt:

In 1876, Gustav Klimt was awarded a scholarship to the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts where he studied until 1883, and received training as an architectural painter. Klimt readily accepted the principles of conservative training; his early work may be classified as academic. He painted classic murals for years before becoming the artist we know today.

Early Gustav

Later Gustav

Georgia O'Keeffe:

From 1905, when O'Keeffe began her studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, until about 1920, she studied art or earned money as a commercial illustrator or a teacher to pay for further education. Under the tutelage of Alon Bement, she learned of the innovative ideas of composition and design by Arthur Wesley Dow. Dow's approach was influenced by principles of design and composition in Japanese art. As you can see this would later influence her art.

“It’s not enough to be nice in life. You’ve got to have nerve. One must also possess the audacity and bravery to take risks and pursue their goals."

- Thanks for that Ms. O’keefe. Bravery comes from experience. You were a brave artist.

Dead Rabbit study. O'Keeffe's early work under the instruction of William Merrit Chase.

Later she was known for...

Intuition is born on the back of experience. If you want to open up and paint more intuitively then knuckle down to work. It's going to take some time.

That’s all for now folks…

Keep those brushes swinging.

Your friend in art,

Doug.