What’s YOUR Story?

What’s the difference between one painting that mesmerizes and captivates, and another that barely catches a glance?

Some say it’s skill or technique, but if that were all that mattered, why would so many technically flawless paintings feel empty and flat?

The truth is that it’s not just about the precision of your strokes.

And it’s not just about the vividness of your palette.

The answer lies in the unique approach and bold choices that can’t be copied or replicated by anyone else.

Larry Moore, “Days of Future Past,” 40 x 40 in. oil on wood.

If some people seem more creative/innovative than others, artist Larry Moore believes those folks mostly just have a lot less fear. The key components of the creative process can be learned by anyone, he maintains, but overcoming the fear of applying them is the real challenge. It’s exactly this that isn’t taught in schools, although it should be.

Moore identifies seven key qualities that make good painters become great ones: Innovation, invention, inspiration, intent, connectivity, problem solving and problem finding.

“Don’t merely rely on the lessons of others for your skill or your voice,” he says. “Look in for what you already know and see what you can adapt to your work. Eventually, you may find that the years spent studying, say, the canons of the head, were but springboards to the real you.

By way of example, he points to the painting we’ve placed at the top of this page: “The river was my backyard and with it came all of the river critters. My father gained the trust of one blue heron whom he ingeniously named “Old blue”. Somehow he trained Old blue to come in the house to get treats.” Such quirky, seemingly odd details of life are precisely what are nagging us to get out in paint, whether we realize it or not.

We all have them, but we seldom realize it. Moore offers this practical exercise for accessing some of our own original content:

“Take some time to write your life down, bullet point your memories and experiences, not just the big ones, the little ones as well, even the out of focus dreams of youth. Include the things you spent years in; architecture, home-making, air traffic controller, football fanatic, for example, and see if there’s not something you can tap into. Pull at your threads a little to see where they lead.”

Larry Moore, “Background,” mixed media, collage, 36 x 40 ins.

There’s a video you might be interested in, if you’re eager to discover how to trust your own creative instincts and find an artistic voice that’s unmistakably hours.

Painter Larry Moore says, “If you’re tired of looking to others for your solutions, this is the class for you. It’s not a ‘how to paint something to look like something’ class. It’s a ‘how to be authentically you’ class. Museums aren’t filled with the same kind of work. The walls are lined with artwork created by rule-breakers and game-changers. I’m going to show you how to make your own rules.”

Check out his video, the Creativity Course, here.