How to believe in your art?

How to believe in your art? How to believe in your ability as an artist? As an artist, you might doubt your own ability irrespective of the beautiful art that you made. While there are various ways to build your confidence as an artist, allow me to share one incidence from my life that helped me gain clarity personally.

The background story

I made a painting entitled “Blossoming” inspired by the flowers I saw in a flower show. A particular tall flower specially captured my attention. I thought it would go well with my geometric style. With some initial planning, “Blossoming” was created after several sessions of oil painting on canvas. I loved it and felt good about it.

However, as time passed, something shifted within me. I felt less confident in my art. Perhaps I was judging my ability as an artist based on the number of artworks that got sold. Also, not getting much reactions on social media made me doubt everything.

A painting that made me feel confident once didn’t feel that great after few months. My mind was too clouded by the external circumstances, opinions and judgements. I was unable to think clearly.

Read the next section to know what happened next.

How to believe in your art?

My confidence was low as an artist. I needed just one sign that things will be better. I will be better. After few months of making this painting – “Blossoming”; one fine day I got an email. This email was no ordinary email. I had registered as an artist on a third-party website. They informed me that my artwork entitled “Blossoming” was sold. The surprising part was that it was bought by a complete stranger. The buyer was not a friend or a family member or any distant relative or known person.

The fact that the painting was bought by a complete stranger shifted something within me. I gained confidence in myself as an artist. The feeling of confidence in my art followed. Eventually, belief in my art strengthened like never before.

If someone who is completely unknown to me could believe in my art so much that they would like to buy it, I could certainly respect my art more.  I was happy to pack and ship my painting to its new home. In fact, I was beyond happy.

While packing my painting, I observed it again. I remembered how hard it was to show a range of shading from white to dark blue and still I managed to achieve it. All the subtle details incorporated in that artwork brought a feeling of pride.

How to believe in your ability as an artist?

This whole incident of loving artwork to uncertainty to embracing my art taught me a lesson that we all know but often forget. We are dependent too much on other people’s opinion and validation to believe in our own abilities.

This incidence suddenly shifted the way I see the outer world. Outer world is not that important after all. If you are authentic and true to your work, you should believe in your art. External circumstances are ever changing. What’s important is your journey as an artist. Listen to your inner voice, your gut, your intuition. Silence the noise of outer world to listen to what you always knew. Your art is good.

Ways to build your confidence as an artist

Here are some lessons that I learned from the entire episode. I hope they help you too:

• We have to be true to ourself and our work.
• We have to do our best based on our present skills and circumstances.
• We have to humbly accept that mastery is an ongoing journey and practice will make us better with passing time.
• Not everyone will like your work and that’s okay. However, someone will like your work.
• Respect your art, skills and hardwork at any point of time.
• Be determined and motivated to keep working, improving and staying consistent.
• Every artwork has a journey. Honestly, you don’t know where it will finally land.

Believe in your art

Till date, I don’t even know the name of the buyer of my painting entitled “Blossoming”. However, I can’t thank this person enough. There one act of buying my painting shifted my perspective for good. Now, the quality of my artwork is taken care of by my honesty and hardwork towards my art. Additionally, listening to everyone but keeping only constructive feedback from the outer world helps me. Sales, social media and other such external circumstances don’t damage the unshakeable belief in my artwork. Your art is good. You will get better with practice and time.