To paint means to create movement. Movement is life. Life is precious. You could not buy a life for a dying person, however rich you maybe.
To create the movement on canvas is an artist’s work. If he captures movement, life follows it. Then his work will survive forever.
To capture life, an artist needs good understanding of the language of art along with intuition. Language of art is a technical skill, just like the grammar of a language. Intuition comes from your life experiences … your sufferings, your joyfulness, your pride and frustrations, your success and failures … all of those experiences would shape your character. That character is your intuition. Every painting shows the artist’s character. You could say what an Artist really paints is his character. That is Originality. Originality survives forever.
If an artist paints to satisfy the market, his work will become illustrations. Illustrations won’t survive for long except if they are painted by great masters. Why this exception? The reason is .. those great masters do every work with their character. Character survives. Their character is their Originality.
19th century Dutch Post Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh starved throughout his Artist life. He died in extreme misery and heart bleeding poverty. No artist suffered in history like him. But in later years, his paintings sold for hundreds of millions dollars. Still they are selling.
Why they sold for those unbelievable amounts?
The reason … he captured movement on his canvases, regardless of the subject. Through that movement he created immortal lives on canvases in spite of his misery and poverty. He had tried to see his character on canvas through his work. He became successful in his struggle. That’s why his paintings have been surviving for so long and will survive forever. That way he made his life immortal.
Being an artist means … Creating life which is immortal. Instead of achieving this, if an artist runs after money and fame, his paintings will be worthless after some time, however successful he maybe at present.