A question of talent
general :: posted on November 16th, 2008
There is a bit of a discussion about the Internet at the moment about natural talent and developed skills. This is quite close to home for me as my childhood home was filled with people of high standing in the arts in that period of time. For example Sam Fullbrook who was larger than life in many ways and I can say without doubt that his art is a true expression of who Sam was. Sally Curry was painting at that time, along with Elizabeth Poole and Geoff Morrison among others with an overall effect of being surrounded by a swirl of large figures and talent in the fine arts.
It could be argued that this was why our family grew up to be involved in the arts, but actually this is exactly why we didn’t. There was an expectation that talent was purely of a natural foundation, and when we didn’t create outstanding works as we climbed out of our nappies we were destined for more conventional directions. But as the discussion unfolds through the question of passion to develop skill and the natural abilities of an individual it reveals that it is really the expectations of society in any given period of time that creates the measuring stick of talent.
For example, is the painting by Elizabeth or the one by Sally that hung in our home of the same calibre of work that they are creating now? Well no, I think not little ducky. Their natural talent has been nurtured and developed and they have found mediums and subject matter that responds to their touch through years of perseverance. Geoff, had an exhibition once in Brisbane, with my Dad (both sadly passed away), but neither of them really leaped into developing a reputation of an artist as that is not what they wanted, but did they have natural talent, well yes.
So at the end of the day, if you don’t have passion to develop skills, then perhaps the talent - natural or developed skills (which really is quite hard to split as a natural talent can become stunted if it isn’t developed, but for the sake of discussion…) won’t become broad and encompassing. It is certainly passion that has allowed me to challenge the assumption of natural talent and take up the batten. I’m yet to see the flame, but hopefully that will come with time, or perhaps that is something an artist never really sees about their own work?
If you follow the link to Steven’s website there is a good read about the discussion and his article links to others if you are interested in tracing back the thread.
Sketch by Elizabeth Poole (Elizabeth Frith at the time) around early 1970’s
