Your Art Doesn’t Need Perfect Accuracy to Be Stunning

At an art exhibition I was at, an artist whose works I admired came over and looked at my paintings and said that the height and distance of certain parts of my paintings were inaccurate and that I should make sure to correct that in my future works. 

I knew that what he said was true and I had not painted that scene accurately to life. (It had been intentional to emphasize the emotional points, but that didn’t seem relevant to him).

But, do you know what happened shortly after having that conversation?

It sold. My painting with the bad perspective sold for more money than I had ever sold a painting for before! 

And at the end of the exhibition, his paintings were still waiting there for someone to buy. 

It can be very easy to get so discouraged from not being able to paint the way we want to—with perfect compositions and straight lines that are completely accurate, and perfect. But if we can only make paintings that turn out in the idealized ways we want, we won’t be able to paint. We’ll excuse ourselves to walk away from the canvas and leave the whole responsibility of making the world’s art to someone else who can draw a straight line and produce works with correct perspectives.

But do people look for perfection when they want to buy art?

Is the art that has shaped culture all of history perfect?

No. 

Double no. 

People buy art because it makes them feel something, because they develop an emotional connection with it so strong they wield out their precious money. 

The art that has endured through generations, shaped cultures, and stayed relevant to this day is awe-inspiring, but it is not all—I would even say is not usually—a class example of mechanical representational skills. 

Art that people buy and art that shapes history communicates meaning and makes people feel something on a human level—which surprisingly does not require straight lines or accurate spatial fields, and our personal human weaknesses help, rather than inhibit, us achieve.

So, you can give up the art vocation to those who can make perfect art (where art would become extinct in our world if every artist chose it) or join us in making imperfect art that moves people’s souls to awe and wonder and shapes the world eternally.