When is the last time you set out to truly master something? To take something you’ve already been doing or start something new
Mastery: Van Gogh's "The Potato Eaters"
and do everything in your power to take it to the masterpiece level?
You know, we call the Master Artists “Masters” because they did just that with their art: they did everything in their power to become Masters; to take their work to the masterpiece level. When the Dutch Post-Impressionist painter, Vincent Van Gogh, started working on one of his earliest paintings, “The Potato Eaters,” he didn’t just slap some paint on the canvas and call it a day. Instead, he made numerous sketches and studies of the work over an entire winter before creating the final oil-on-canvas painting in 1885. He put a great deal of thought and effort into the work and wrote to his brother, Theo, “I have tried to emphasize that those people eating their potatoes in the lamplight, have dug the earth with those very hands they put in the dish, and so it speaks of manual labor and how they have honestly earned their food.” He worked hard to “match” the darkened palette to the drabness of their poor living conditions, so, as you might have noticed, the painting is devoid of the bright colors that would become his signature later in his career.
Van Gogh hoped this work would be considered a “masterpiece” one day, so he practiced, thought and tried, tried and tried again. Today the work hangs in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and, he would be happy to know, it is considered to be a masterpiece.
What are you doing to master something in your life or work right now? Focus on your next work of Mastery, shift your thinking to take you there and create rituals and procedures that will accelerate your progress. Master something new . . . and relish realizing what you are truly capable of.
It gave me pause to think of Van Gogh spending all of that time on one painting, not even starting with the paint until he had a solid vision. Too often I go off half planned and what I’m doing falls far short of masterpiece.
Thanks Nancy for reminding us that if we truly want to master anything in our lives we have to pour ourselves into it with passion no matter how long it takes!
Comment by Janice — March 3, 2010 @ 10:40 am
Janice,
I think your comment about often going off “half planned” is a good reminder to all of us who are busy and often rushing through things. On the other hand, you’re right . . . a little planning with a lot of passion can get us to Mastery. Thanks for chiming in!
Nancy
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