Every now and again I come across articles that offer useful information.  I want to pass along "Silencing a Voice that Says You're a Fraud," by Melinda Beck, printed in the Wall Street Journal.  It's worth the read.

I often revisit books that have interested me in the past, finding new insights  I missed in an earlier reading.  Lately, I've found myself going back to a book by Martin S. Lindauer, titled Aging, Creativity, and Art: A Positive Perspective on Late-Life Development. 

Lindauer's research questions the assumption that creativity peaks in youth, and begins to fade by the age of 30, often referred to as the decline model.  Much of his research shows - from various perspectives - that what we identify as creativity persists throughout life, and can actually increase and manifest in new ways with age, arguing that "Aging therefore enhanced rather than stifled artistic expression."

I find this idea of particular importance to artists who have entered the field, or are contemplating entering the artistic field at the age of 50 or older.

While all of Lindauer's research is based on the life-time work of renowned artists who began in their 20's and are (or were, in the case of deceased artists) still working at age 60 through 80, I wanted to see what insights I could discover for artists who were starting at age 50.

Regardless of whether the artist was male or female, from the Renaissance, the 1800's, or 20th Century,  I noticed from the graphs of data that productivity and quality increased for at least three decades from the starting age.  So artists who began their careers at age 20, were generally regarded to be at their best by age 40 to 50.

Could it be possible that the three decade similarity actually described the time frame an artist needed to develop the full range of insights and skills in order to perform at the top of his or her ability, and not the peaking followed by the gradual decline of creativity? 

Other graphs indicate that particularly long-lived artists had two or more peaks, explained by early productivity, a stagnation or decrease in productivity, and then a second or third resurgence of creative output.  

This is exciting to me.  Think about this the idea.  If creativity manifests itself throughout our lives, and if an artist has at least two to three decades of enthusiastic, concentrated effort ahead of them before extreme old age impacts their ability to work, why shouldn't we expect a similar pattern of achievement for the artist who starts at age 50 that we expect from the artist who starts at age 20? 

Are we poised on the cusp of a unique time when the next great artistic movement comes not from the young, but from artists who do not pick up a paint brush until after the age of 51?

Intriguing thought, isn't it?

In that regard, I was pleased to see that Southwest Art Magazine followed up their first Emerging Artists Search, titled "21 under 31" with a second Emerging Artists Search titled "21 over 31", although this suggests that if the first search focused on artists aged between 20 and 31, the  second search implies an age bracket of 31 to 42. 

It's a step in the right direction to acknowledge that artists can emerge at a later age.

But I would be really excited if a major art magazine published an Emerging Artists Search titled "21 over 51."  I'd be willing to bet the art will be just as innovative, accomplished, visionary or spiritual as any in the younger brackets.  In fact, it might be better.

But that's my bias. 

I found this excerpt from a poem by Longfellow, titled Morituri Salutamus:

"For age is opportunity, no less
Than Youth itself, though in another dress,
And as the evening twilight fades away
The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day."

As Barney Davey said on his facebook post: "Leonard Cohen - Hallelujah - at age 74 with more inspiring soul stirring passion than others half his age."

One of the most frustrating tasks an artist faces is how to effectively photograph their art.  I've tried every method.  I have a book on the subject, I've scoured the internet, received advice from professional photographers, and still haven't found one way that works every time.

But there are tricks you can use that work in different circumstances.

Trick #1 - Controlling the light when photographing indoors.

Okay, you've set up your artwork in a space where you can control the ambient light - either at night, or in a hall or a room where you can close the blinds.  You have your camera on a tripod, and your lights angled at 45 degrees from the work and positioned behind your tripod.  But you still get glare, particularly with oil paintings. 

Try setting your camera on automatic timer, then holding a sheet of vellum up in front of the light fixture responsible for the glare - a little experimentation is helpful. I've found cupping the paper slightly to bounce the light up toward the ceiling works. The vellum will diffuse the light.  You will still get good illumination and avoid those hot spots.

Trick #2 - Taking your paintings outside.

When I first started photographing my artwork outside, I followed the advice to do it in the shade.  I was using slide film and was able to get beautiful photographs.  But with my digital camera this is not the case.  Often the colors appear too blue, no matter how I change the white balance. 

Now I photograph dry paintings in direct sun, at about a 45 degree angle, using my tabletop easel set on the ground.  This means I have to bend down at an awkward angle, but if the painting is angled flatter, it reflects more glare.  I've found that using the automatic settings on my camera seem to work best, rather than adjusting the white balance, but I'm also in the northern part of the country and the sun is in a different area of the sky.

Trick #3 - Learn to use Photoshop

As long as your image is in focus and the colors are accurate when you upload your image, there's a lot you can do using Photoshop to clean it up.  As a safety precaution, duplicate the image before manipulating it. 

If, when you use the cropping tool, you realize your image is skewed enough to significantly alter the appearance, try using Transform first. Under Image, click on transform and then on skew.  You can adjust the image fairly easily by pulling up the corners, but when you're finished, your image will be automatically saved as  PS or Photoshop image. Go ahead and save it, then open it again and click on Edit - Save As - and select jpeg.  

 Here is a detail of an untouched image, showing the white dots where the pixels have no color.  This is a common issue when photographing oil paintings due to the nature of the oil paint and the textured surface.  

Here is an easy method to use to correct your image.

Start by opening your thumbnail.  Using CTRL and the + sign, enlarge the image so you can begin to see the details.  You'll notice white dots - these are areas where reflected light tricked your camera into seeing white, and can otherwise ruin a nice image. 

Click on the clone tool.  Something that looks like a bullseye opens up on your image.  Hold this icon over a color adjacent to the white dot that you want to eliminate. While holding down the ALT key, left click your mouse - this action picks up the color.  Then simply move the bullseye over the white dot and left click  without holding the ALT key - stamping the color.

Here is the corrected image.  It's a simple solution, and with a little practice you'll be cleaning up your images like a pro.  

As you're working, you may find it necessary to increase the magnification of the pixels. Just press CTRL and + until you can clearly see what you're doing.  Then to check our image, use CTRL and the - sign to reduce the image size.

If you look closely, you can see the three darker green dots just above the orange curve of this pear. This is a .5 in the brush preferences, which shows up in the tool bar at the top of your screen once you activate the clone stamp tool. Play around with the sizes of the brush preferences (sizes of the dots) - too small and it takes forever but too large can be too obvious.

  Be sure to save the image frequently, as I have learned the hard way that 20 minutes of tedious work can be lost through one careless click on the mouse.

Tip #4 - Crop your image

This tip is not really for you but for all those other artists who think a photo of their painting should include that bright gold frame because it looks so much better than just the image. And why not show some of that doily that you set your painting on, too, because after all it sets up a nice homey contrast.  Or maybe the green plant.  Or the dog that just happened to walk into the image. 

Tip #5 - Use a professional for the important images

For your record keeping, any image will do. For your web page portfolio, a clean, cropped, appropriately bright and contrasted image is perfect.  You can check your histogram first ( look in the Image drop down menu) - it should look like a bell curve, which indicates how the camera was reading the brightness, and you can adjust up or down.  Bear in mind that color varies from monitor to monitor and you can make yourself crazy trying to fine tune everything. If it looks good on your computer, then check out your site on two or three other computers, using different browsers. If you're happy with the results let it go. 

But if you are submitting to important shows or juried organizations, or preparing images for postcards, you may want to use a professional photographer.  Find one who specializes in photographing products or artwork.  The photographer I use has been generous with his knowledge and helped me learn how to do much of the photography work on my own - which is definitely more convenient and less costly.  Try to find one who will share their knowledge with you, too.

It's important to keep good photographic records of the work you produce, and to be able to pull together professional images on short notice.  So for me, it was also important to take the time to work through the various problems I encountered while photographing my work.  I hope you will experiment with some of these simples fixes with your next painting.