Why Get Your Work Critiqued?

Antrese Wood: Hey, it's Antrese and welcome to another episode of The Savvy Painter Podcast. If you are a long-time listener of the podcast, thank you and welcome back. If you're new to this podcast, welcome. Savvy Painter is the podcast for artists who want practical tactical tips to create a meaningful art practice that is both fulfilling and supports you.

This episode is part of a series of podcasts where I brought together a round table of artists from Growth Studio. What I did was I picked several topics I thought you might be interested in hearing about and I asked Growth Studio members to come on the podcast for a deep-dive discussion. Today we have Sabrina Setaro, Elisabeth Svendby, and Beverly Woodhall. We're going to talk about getting your work critiqued. Fun, right? Okay.

Some of the things that we talk about is what's the purpose of a critique? How do we deal with advice that we're not really sure if we agree with it or not? How to get past the nerves of having your work critiqued and most importantly, what these artists have learned about their own work from consistently seeking out constructive feedback. Let's start with a quick round of introductions. We can just start with Sabrina.

Sabrina Setaro: Hello, everyone. My name is Sabrina Setaro. I live in South Carolina, in a small town called York. I do mainly watercolor and gouache work. It's mainly abstract and very intuitive, even though I see the world in there and little things. But yeah, that's what I'm doing.

Antrese Wood: Elisabeth, how about you?

Elisabeth Svendby: Yeah, I'm Elisabeth Svendby. I live in Oslo, Norway. Right now I'm painting and drawing mostly figures using oils or wax pastels.

Antrese Wood: How about you, Beverly?

Beverly Woodhall: Hi, Antrese. I've been a long time listener of your podcast, so I'm excited to be here. My name, yeah, Beverly Woodhall. I am mainly an abstract painter currently. I use a lot of mixed media, but I have recently fallen in love with oil paint. So the painting usually ends up with a lot of oil painting and oil sticks on top of layers of other things. Yeah.

Antrese Wood: Nice.

Beverly Woodhall: I live in North Carolina on the Outer Banks.

Antrese Wood: Perfect, I love it. I love we're all from all over the place. It makes it so much fun. Okay, so let's dive in. I think a lot of artists crave feedback on their work, but I know it can also be scary and vulnerable to put yourself out there in that regard to be showing your work to people. I think also that a lot of artists have had critiques that maybe weren't so helpful. I know that sometimes it can make artists nervous about asking for feedback.

Let's just start off with this question: What do you think are the benefits of getting a critique? I mean, why do that? Why put yourself through that? Yeah, let's start with Beverly.

Beverly Woodhall: Oh, gosh, I love critiques. I love when I get critiqued on my artwork and the other people because I always get something out of it. I've been with Growth Studio for a good while now so I do hear a lot of critiques and there are sort of things that pop up over and over again that they're really trained in me now. So I have super learned how to look at artwork from a different perspective than when I first started. I've always benefited. When you talk about my work, it's like you just turn the lights on and I'm like, “Oh, yes.”

Antrese Wood: I love the little hand gesture that gets little sparkles.

Beverly Woodhall: I can put forever on it with that. That's probably enough for the first question, right?

Antrese Wood: Yeah, yeah. I'm curious, when you first started, were you nervous about getting your work critiqued?

Beverly Woodhall: Yes, I go through phases with anxiety just in my life. Sometimes I'm literally terrified. Then other times, I'm so super comfortable that I like to join in and talk a lot. For me, it's an up-and-down thing, but it can be, yeah, it can make you really nervous.

But even if you're nervous, it's super important to put your art out there and let people talk about it so you can improve and not come at it as anyone's like attacking you or anything. You can always take or leave the advice.

Antrese Wood: Sabrina, how about you?

Sabrina Setaro: Yeah, I mean, oh, Beverly, what you said, I mean, I underline everything. I'm newer to Growth Studio. I've been coming since six months, I would say. The advice I got when I joined has become so true and the advice from the others was to participate, do get yourself out there as soon as you can. I did, and it was really good advice. Because also, not just do I get hints on what actually is coming out of me on the painting, sometimes it's hard to see that, but I see that others see that too and can say, "Oh yeah, I see that," then it is like a thread that is easier to find to get to the next one.

That is very helpful, but also being able to articulate what I like about my work, what we always start with, what do you love about your work and what do you want help with, I think that sets the tone in the mindset really well right at the beginning to think about this.

Critique is not so much about this particular painting, but it's basically about finding out what you want and how you and Growth Studio can help. Yeah, that is very helpful. That also helps me not to be so nervous about it. So I'm not really nervous about when I sum something in because I know I will get the help and sending in a critique is always a celebration to me too because we created work no matter what and we bring it and we share it. There are so many good things coming out of it, no matter if it's a successful painting or not.

Beverly Woodhall: Yeah, I agree.

Antrese Wood: Elisabeth, how about you?

Elisabeth Svendby: I don't know if there's so much to add to that. I think most of the things have been said now, but I think also it was scary in the beginning, but that was more like all eyes were on me and my work. It was quite a vulnerable situation. But now I don't really have that problem anymore because it's never been a bad experience. It's always, always good stuff that comes out of that.

Like Sabrina said, I get practice in talking about my work because I work alone all the time and I don't really have that many arty friends or if I do, we don't really talk about our work as much. So, to actually articulate what I feel and what I like about my own work has been really, really helpful. Yeah.

Antrese Wood: Yeah. Elisabeth, what's one or two things that you've learned about yourself as an artist or a painter from getting your work critiqued, whether it's through Growth Studio or anywhere else?

Elisabeth Svendby: I think the most important thing that I learned is that everything is up to me. Through the critiques, I've actually learned that my paintings are pretty good actually, the most paintings I bring in, no matter how insecure I am and how critical I get while I work. You can get into these negative cycles when you're all by yourself. I guess that trusting that my taste is fine and that I make good work and I just keep doing what I'm doing and bring them in and get good advice whenever I need it, everything can be solved. Yeah, just to believe in what I'm doing. Yeah.

Antrese Wood: One of the things Sabrina mentioned is that we start off the critiques with what do you love about your work? For me as a person in this situation who's giving the critiques—and I know it's mean and cruel to ask you guys that question, like, "What do you love about your work?"—but for me, one of the most, I think, beautiful things is watching this evolution of you at first being like, “Well, nothing,” or “I don't know what to say to that,” to then describing in detail what is working well in the painting, what you're loving about it, and having this connection to your work that I think is essential for you as painters to have that embedded in you when you go back to your studio.

It's just something I'm very, I don't know, passionate about. It can be hard, honestly, sometimes, because I can see you squirming. I've seen all of you squirm over that question. But I know that if I keep nudging you and nudging you and nudging you over time that you'll start to see what everybody else on the call sees which is that there are so many gorgeous moments in it and the only question is how do we close the gap between what you see and what you want to create. Do you have something, Elisabeth?

Elisabeth Svendby: Yeah, I was just going to say that it's so nice to see how this feedback up in the chat from the others also. It's really a confidence boost. You can see all the nice things they're saying.

Antrese Wood: Sabrina.

Sabrina Setaro: I think besides the beauty of it, that you start with the good thing of what you love about it and to set the tone right for me, it is a fast track really to focus on what is essential with this piece because I'm easily distracted by other things. It is hard when I paint for myself to look at it and know, “Oh, yeah, this is what I was maybe trying to do. Why is this not working? Why is that?”

By you asking this question, it's really like fast-track, putting complete focus on immediately, yeah, if you look at what do you like about it, what was your intention? What works? Then also, how can you make more of a nod? I think it is a way to really bring intense focus to the critique itself, and take out all the things that don't matter so much.

It's amazing too that we have an hour and we go through several works and each one is really meaningful because we don't waste time on the surface on things that don't matter, but treat it exactly for the most essential part. It has sped up my learning a lot and to really get quickly to also learn about what the other artists are about. I think that's amazing. It feels good too, even though it is not about getting away with, “Oh, yeah, this is this great piece of work that I did. It is way more deeper and meaningful.”

Antrese Wood: Beverly, was there anything you wanted to add or say?

Beverly Woodhall: Well, I'm thinking about sitting here and thinking about our critiques. At first, a lot of the things went over my head when you were talking about other people's art. But I've obviously learned so much, but your critiques are really special because you're able to find very important things that will change a painting in a very positive way. It's amazing how you just go right to the little areas. You can see it so clearly and share it with us so clearly. You're very kind. You don't make us feel belittled. It's a very positive experience.

Antrese Wood: Thank you. What is the most surprising thing you've heard on a critique? You may not have an answer for this, but.

Beverly Woodhall: Yeah. I think it might have to-Braighlee's painting comes to my mind for some reason. I think I was surprised when she would bring some of her portraits, and I just thought they were perfect. You would find things and dramatically improve it, like on skin tone and things like that, because I'm not a portrait painter, so I don't understand all that so much. But that comes to mind that you are able to help us improve on artwork that looks like it might be done. You've done that with Jack and others, all of us, I think.

I tend to bring in artwork that's in progress because I really want help to guide me through to the end. A lot of people will bring in something that's finished and you can still find areas they can improve on it. I like that, but that might be a little surprising. Oftentimes, where you get to that part where you're stuck where you're not quite in that middle stage, but you're working your way through that middle stage. That's where I like to get thoughts and critiques, thoughtful advice from you, and anybody else too, in the group. That just helps me reset and find my way.

Antrese Wood: Yeah, I mean, I think it can be really interesting. I'd love to hear from Elisabeth and Sabrina what you think about this, but you're just making me think, Beverly, it's such a good question, an interesting question. I've never really counted, but I think I would guess like two thirds of the people bring painting in midway, and then a third, I don't think it's quite half and half will bring it in when the painting is finished.

In some ways, I can see benefits in both approaches. Because for some people, when you know that there are all these things that you want to do, it's difficult to bring a painting and knowing that I still have to finish XYZ. It's maybe the thought process of that, of just, "Okay, I know all this stuff needs to get done." Then there's the other way of thinking like you're describing, Beverly, which is, "Okay, the painting is halfway done. Let's see where it goes."

I think there's benefits to both. Because as the person who's doing the critique in the latter, when the painting's done, I can see and we can talk about what the final execution was and what they had intended and what their gap might be and where they can go in the next couple of--

Beverly Woodhall: Exactly, carry it forward, yeah.

Antrese Wood: Yeah, what they can carry forward. In the middle of the painting, I mean, it's just a different conversation. It's like, then it's like, where do we want to go on this one?

Beverly Woodhall: It depends, I think, on what you need as the artist. I often need a little guidance when I'm like 2/3 there to focus and see it from a different point of view from someone who knows what they're doing, yeah. But everybody doesn't need that, I suppose, of course, some people know what they're doing. It's like I came in here without-

Antrese Wood: Actually, I mean, I would argue that none of us.

Beverly Woodhall: Yeah, I came in here completely unprepared and some people came in very prepared and we're all different.

Antrese Wood: Yeah. Elisabeth.

Elisabeth Svendby: Yeah, I'm actually favoring bringing it to a critique later. I guess there are two reasons for that. One is that I'm very easily influenced. I find that I'm continuing on with this painting if I get feedback too soon in a different direction than I really wanted to because I know other people like this or that. So then just giving it a compliment midway will mess with my mind, especially if they say they love this part and I'm halfway only, then get scared of messing.

I get scared of disappointing them sometimes too, like, I'm covering up the part that they loved so yeah. It throws me off a bit too. Yeah, I usually come in when I'm like 90% or that's the best for me. Or maybe even more, because then I'm like, if there's something that I just can't figure out, I know it's not working quite as I want it to in my mind's eye, then I can get a second opinion and get an expert eye and figure out what I can do. It's always surprising. It's a lot of not that much, which is cool. Just little tweaks and it just, ah, there it is, now it's working.

Beverly Woodhall: Yeah, that works for your type of artwork too. I'm thinking about the art you make and how that makes total sense.

Elisabeth Svendby: Hmm.

Antrese Wood: I'm thinking about, it's one of the things that I'm really conscious of when I'm talking about your work or about other people's work is understanding what your intention is before I give any thoughts about it. Because as somebody who's giving you the critique, my honest opinion is what I think about your painting is basically irrelevant.

What's relevant is what do you want from your painting and how can I help you get there? It helps that I love your paintings, by the way. All of you. I mean, I just see so many gorgeous moments in all of the work.

Also, Elisabeth, to your point, I think part of our evolution as artists is to become more and more just understanding of and having that faith in our own vision so that when somebody says, “Oh, I love this spot,” I mean, we talk about this and oh, Sabrina, I’d love your thoughts on this because we've had many conversations about this, I'm setting you up, Sabrina, but when we're working on a painting and let's say, for example, somebody says, “Oh, my gosh Antrese, this part of your painting, I love that so much,” then when I go back to it, I might look at that spot and be like, "Oh my gosh, Elisabeth, loved that part." I have to be willing-

Beverly Woodhall: To cover it up.

Antrese Wood: To cover it up. In service of the painting, I have to be willing to commit suicide and to just take it out, to kill, all of those sayings, to commit suicide in your painting, I hate that term.

Beverly Woodhall: It's funny you were bringing this up. That's a huge lesson I learned pretty early on. Whenever I have a little part in my painting that I'm in love with, I immediately cover it up. Then I'm free because it can dictate what's around what you're doing, and you'll get trapped by it. Then it's not working. You gotta get rid of it and move on. That was a huge lesson for me and I have loved that, practiced that.

Antrese Wood: Yeah, and you do that so often now, it's amazing. Yeah, it's a hard lesson to learn.

Elisabeth Svendby: It's a hard lesson to learn.

Antrese Wood: Yeah.

Elisabeth Svendby: I just almost find it easier to kill my own darlings than the ones that the expert Antrese pointed out. You know what I mean? Because we respect you so much. It's just a little thing in the back of my head that I know is messing with me a little bit. But at the same time, I'm craving your approval. Because we all are a bit insecure, and part of our artists is craving approval.

Antrese Wood: I'm thinking of a number of paintings where I said something like, "Oh, my gosh, this part right here, I love it," and then a couple of weeks later, the painting comes back and that part is gone but what you’ve done with it is 10 times better. I’m like, “Oh, my god, that’s so good.” We’re just responding to what’s happening in that moment. Sabrina, you wanted to say something.

Sabrina Setaro: Yeah, I agree. I would say also that is something that I really learned through the critiques too. I was not aware of how much I was getting pressured with the things that were working in my painting and not going the next step to go deeper. I think it was actually in the first critique and it already, boom, hit me. You said to me, “It looks like you're holding back.”

I was so afraid, maybe because I mean, first of all, I'm more of an emerging artist. The second, because I work in water media, watercolor and gouache, I was so ingrained in my head that “Don't overwork a painting, you can kill a painting easily.” I was truly holding back, I saw these things, and I love them. I knew I can make one more brushstroke and the holding is ruined and I will never see this little piece in my life again. It will never be there again.

You saying, “I feel like you're holding back,” and all of a sudden I saw it, yes, there's so much space still in my painting and that is not because of the intention that I wanted to keep it open, it was because I was scared to go further. The critiques helped me exactly that when you cited Israel Hershberg, that you have to be willing to commit suicide in your painting. I heard that also outside of Growth Studio, you have to go to the abyss. That's so stuck with me.

That is because I brought my paintings to the critique. I learn a lot also from listening to critiques, but that hit me. Also getting the encouragement, it's fine. That's another thing, it's not a problem. Do overwork it, go, if you're afraid, then overwork it, go even more than you think. Do it so they don't like your painting again. Oh, my gosh, that is so freeing because it is so hard.

Yeah, I do still constantly too, when I find something that I saw so much in my painting and then I feel myself working around and trying to preserve it. Then I know it's time for that big brush. It's time for the abyss, but it's okay.

Beverly Woodhall: You're reminding me of something else, Sabrina, when you think you've done something really special and you don't want to ruin it, but I also learned this, and this is a huge, huge help, you made it once, you can make it again. The thing is, look at what happened to Taylor Swift, they stole all of her music, and she was like, "Well, it's my music, I can make it again." She re-recorded all of her music, so she owns it, and it's just like anything you make, you can always make it again and maybe better.

That goes along with covering up your precious moments, I think. Having trust. Oh, and then it leads into having trust, trusting yourself, which is another huge, huge lesson to learn that Antrese has really gotten me through. Wow, Antrese, dang.

Antrese Wood: You do not make me cry.

Beverly Woodhall: It's a lot, it's a lot.

Antrese Wood: I mean, I think that one thing that is important when we're creating our art is to notice that when we are holding ourselves back, that oftentimes, I hear all of us, and I think this too, I hear us saying this as like, "Well, I don't want to push it too far," my question is always, “Well, how are you going to know if it's too far, if you don't push it farther? How do you know where the line is if you don't cross the line?”

You might be miles away from that line, and there's so much you can do between where you are and where that line is, and then you might get to the line and realize, "Oh, that's not where I want the line."

Beverly Woodhall: I was going to say though, when you're talking about pushing that line, and that was something also that I was trying to do and I thought I was doing it, but then I remember the time I just said I want to scribble, I just felt like scribbling and I literally started painting large pieces with colors that I loved and movements that just letting it all out through my whole body, that led to this new body of work that I'm now doing. It's super cool. Yeah, it's all connected and so many lessons to learn. I know there's more coming.

Antrese Wood: Totally, totally. So here's a question that's similar to what we're talking about, an offshoot. What have you changed your mind about in your paintings as a result of critiques or showing your work to people?

Beverly Woodhall: I mean, sometimes I double down if someone says something negative to me, as you know, and I double down and say, “Well, you might not like it, but I'm going to take it further. It's working out for me. I'm selling the pieces that you just rejected. You can't take everything people say to you to heart, because nobody else is some kind of master over your artwork, it's your artwork and so no matter who says anything how qualified they are, it is ultimately yours to make all of the decisions on the piece that you're working on. You have to do that. You have to be authentic and trust and just be you. If a lot of people don't like it, it doesn't matter. You just got to get the right people to find it.

Antrese Wood: Yeah, 100%. Sabrina.

Sabrina Setaro: Among the many things I think I learned or how I look differently at my paintings through the critique is that I don't see them so much as a product. I see them more as a snapshot of a body of work instead of this product that I have to make perfect so it is presentable. I see it really more of a, it's almost like when you get an MRI or something, a scan, it's almost like a scan that is just part of something three dimensional. It's just one at a time.

Going to the critiques and how we do the critiques helped me to see it that way and to not fixate or even care too much about that specific piece. Because yeah, we talk about the piece and talk about all the little things and it feels so good, it is a celebration too, as I said earlier, but I moved away from thinking too much of this one piece and go much larger with my thinking and I appreciate it.

Beverly Woodhall: I like that Sabrina, that's really cool.

Antrese Wood: Yeah, yeah, it's that again, coming back to not being precious about it. What were you going to say, Elisabeth?

Elisabeth Svendby: No, I totally agree. I change my mind all the time. On these critiques, I guess, that's what it's about. Because mainly, the big thing I changed my mind about is usually that it's a pretty good painting, like I said before. It just needs a few tweaks. Those are usually tweaks that you thought were okay, but when you see them, then your mind is sort of blown by how you can take it, you usually take it into Photoshop if you show us things.

You put in a little shadow here or change of temperature, for example, and just to see how things get pushed back or made to come forward. So then I can change my mind, like you say, in how I think what's done and not. Because you see things with new eyes.

Antrese Wood: Yeah.

Sabrina Setaro: Just a quick comment on that. It's also really cool to see, "Ooh, what is Antrese going to do with my painting?" Instead of saying that it has to be perfect, it's actually really fun to see what she takes. "Oh, there's this little dot and that color changes everything." It becomes fun and lighthearted and easy. Actually, I think it would be so boring if we had these perfect paintings and we just would just clap hands constantly and say, “Oh yeah, this is all perfect.” It would be boring, so.

Antrese Wood: Yeah, it would. It's also fun when I throw something in there and I'm like, “Oh, my God, that's horrible, but don't do that.”

Beverly Woodhall: Yeah, I just had a memory actually of when I first brought some of my artwork. I was really shy about bringing my abstract paintings because the other people were really bringing much more realistic things and getting these really in-depth knowledgeable critiques because it feels like you just have some sort of file next to you that in your head, you just know these facts and these elements of artwork and they're right at your fingertips.

I brought my abstract painting in and just like that, you were able to critique it with knowledge and confidence. I just remember that was probably a very surprising moment for me. It was very encouraging, because I was a little shy about doing an abstract like that and you were always so encouraging.

Antrese Wood: Now you're doing these giants.

Beverly Woodhall: I had told my dream since I was in my 20s was to make large abstract paintings. I never even dared to try to do them. Now I'm on my way. It's really crazy, yeah.

Antrese Wood: So cool. I know, okay, so nobody can see this, but we're on a Zoom call and I can see everything. What I love the most is just the way that Sabrina and Elisabeth are looking at Beverly, like so much love.

Beverly Woodhall: Oh, God, thank you, you're all so kind, thank you.

Antrese Wood: Sabrina, were you going to say something?

Sabrina Setaro: It's also what Beverly described as she needed, or it was helpful to her to get the encouragement to just go large and do these. We're getting to experience in seeing that every week. I needed the encouragement to go really small and just do these. Again, this speaks to the fact that what we bring through the critique by asking us what we love, what we want, it's not about making large paintings, making small paintings, making abstract, making abstraction or drawing or any of this. It is really about what do you want.

It's interesting that it’s not abstract is easier or representation, it's not about any of those are small versus large. There is a fear associated with this. The critiques help to get this push to just keep going with it because it still is going to be scary, it's not that it's, for me at least, I can only speak for me, it's not that I go out with then the painting after critique and think, “Oh, yeah, it's now easy and I'm going to show my work and I'm going to sell my work,” and all that and there's still [inaudible] but it is not overwhelming.

I have enough encouragement to take the next step and the next step and that is I think so valuable in these two and yeah, the encouragement is helpful. Also, sometimes to try things out on many levels, I think. Yeah, I think I'm saying more things than I wanted to say to that. I just wanted to say that it's funny that going large takes courage and sometimes needs encouragement and going small too and it's all allowed.

Antrese Wood: Yeah. Well, I mean, I think that with both of those, what the encouragement is, is to go with your instinct and go with the thing. It's your instinct and it's also follow your curiosity. Follow the thing that you think you shouldn't do. I'm thinking of Elisabeth right now because Elisabeth at one point was saying, “I don't know if I should do this. I don't know if I should do these paintings.” I'm like, “Why wouldn't you do those paintings?”

Elisabeth Svendby: Well, I change my mind so often. I do landscape one moment, and I figure the next, and then I go really large, and then I spend two months in my sketchbook and tear those out and frame them. All kind of mediums too, you know? I have this, I guess, natural urge to settle down, you know? Let me just figure out who I am, as if who I am is one thing. It's oils, and it's faces, it never will be. That's something I learned.

Antrese Wood: When you think about that, what that voice is telling you to do is pick one thing, do it, and that's going to be your thing for the rest of your life.

Beverly Woodhall: That feels like it would be the death of me to just do that. I struggled with that a lot, Elisabeth, a lot. I think we just do whatever we want. I kept thinking there were rules and that you have to do this one thing, make this show, it's imaginary show in a gallery that's all consistent, all the same. No. Erase all of that. It's not anything. That's nothing. That means nothing. You do you.

Antrese Wood: Yeah. I think what to me is most relevant in terms of our growth as artists is allowing ourselves to create the work that we want to create and to be curious about the things that we are curious about. That is part of being an artist is having lots of ideas. To silence those ideas to me, long term, it's detrimental to the artist because it creates a scenario where you're constantly shutting yourself down and saying, “No, I can't do that because I paint landscapes,” or “No, I can't do that.”

So what if you spend two months doing something that at the moment feels like a tangent? I think, as I've seen with every single one of you, there have been moments of, “Let me go explore this thing, and it feels weird. It feels crazy. But I keep thinking about it so let's go explore that.” Then you go explore that for two or three months. Then it ends up being the link that you needed to expand the work that you were doing before. So you can't find the thread before you've done the work.

Beverly Woodhall: True.

Antrese Wood: So I will forever be encouraging you all to paint the painting that you want to paint. Go down that road that you want to go down. Play with that thing that you think is just ridiculous and has nothing to do with what you're working on because if it keeps coming up, it's because your subconscious, your mind, it has relevance for you. We don't know what it is yet because we keep shutting it down so let's not shut it down and find out what it has to say. Sabrina, what were you going to say?

Sabrina Setaro: Yeah, I just want to also point out because it is creating a loving way to talk about art, to be an artist absolutely 100%. But I think often, people might be afraid that this then means we're not taking the art seriously or we're just doing what we want, what feels good, what we're comfortable at.

My experience was, experience and critique the way you do them was the exact opposite is, yes, it's all those things. It feels good, it is encouraging, it helps me not to be down on myself because you don't allow us to do that ever. But it is going so much deeper into the art, into what you can do as an artist and not just, yeah, go explore more, go more detailed on your colors, explore that all more. That really makes the art better. It takes it extremely serious. It is not just a feel-good way of talking about our art. I think that if you don't experience it, you could easily maybe think you only learned from brutal critiques or something.

Antrese Wood: Right, right. Which, yeah, I don't think that brutal critiques are helpful. I think honest critiques are helpful, but I don't think there's ever any reason to be brutal about it. Yeah.

Beverly Woodhall: Yeah, there's really complex conversations involved in the critiques that really, all these things we've been talking about, it's like the jumping off point, I think, for growth.

Antrese Wood: Yeah. Yeah. Elisabeth, what were you going to say?

Elisabeth Svendby: Yeah. I think that we haven't really touched on this yet, I guess, the fact that you ask us what we're struggling with or what we need help with on the painting, at least for me, that can be really important. Sometimes I'm just like, I can't just say it, just what do you think? Is there anything you see that is obvious to you that I can change?

But to be able to just get critiques on what you need so you don't have to mess with everything you've made sort of, I think it's really important. You don't get that famous unsolicited advice, because if you're happy, you don't need that noise.

Antrese Wood: Exactly, exactly. Yeah. Anything else that you are thinking about that you think would be helpful for other artists to hear that I haven't asked you or you just think would be helpful for other artists who are there in their studios, painting away, listening to the podcast out on a walk in the woods with their dogs?

Elisabeth Svendby: There's nothing to lose basically.

Beverly Woodhall: I think I've said everything. I think they're so important and so well done. They can just lead you places you didn't imagine you could go.

Antrese Wood: Sabrina.

Sabrina Setaro: Yeah, and I went also a lot of years and I think that is not uncommon without having my work shown or critiqued. I would also say, I mean, of course, I agree with everything. I think listening to this is obvious that we have gained so much from these critiques. But I also want to point out that if you do not want to have your work critiqued, you don't have to.

If you are afraid of showing your work, you don't have to do anything and there is a lot of good reasons you are afraid and it tells you a lot of good things about yourself. But if you feel you are at the point where the fear of not showing is not serving you as much anymore as if it is holding you back in a way, then I would say the only way to get over that fear of showing is just showing. I don't think there is a shortcut to it. It's just showing and practicing and showing your work.

Beverly Woodhall: And it's such a safe place to do it. We're also supportive of one another. I don't think there's ever been an ugly moment in Growth Studio that I've seen.

Sabrina Setaro: No.

Beverly Woodhall: Maybe some tears, but that's a good thing, too.

Elisabeth Svendby: I can remember. I think I was crying on a critique once just a year or 18 months ago when I was painting figures from old family photos, because it felt so vulnerable. Now, that's like a distant memory. Really, I feel so much safer not in being critiqued, but just making those paintings. That's through having critiques and coaching and all of that. Yeah.

Antrese Wood: Yeah, which is amazing. This conversation has naturally gone towards the critiques that we do in Growth Studio because that's the context that we have for each other. What I'd love to do is let's talk a little bit about advice for people who are not in Growth Studio, what to look for in somebody to critique their work and/or how do you determine “I'm not going to take on that advice,” even if it was solicited? Do you have thoughts on that?

Elisabeth Svendby: Well, that's a good question. Someone who you respect, you respect their work if you can find an artist. That's not always easy.

Beverly Woodhall: There's usually an art community in the area. Everyone has a little art center place for the art classes, something like that. I think that's usually a good place to start.

Antrese Wood: Yeah, I think it depends. Because I mean, I'm just thinking where I am. There's not a lot where I am.

Beverly Woodhall: Yeah, no, there's not a lot here either. But I don't know. I just think in school classes, take the class in your community college or something like an art class probably.

Antrese Wood: What would you look for? What are the characteristics that you think would be either this is a no brainer, like, “Yes, I want to listen to this person,” or you guys seen the red flag, green flag guy on Instagram? Oh, it's hilarious. Anyway, not important, but red flags versus green flags for somebody to give you a critique.

Elisabeth Svendby: Gosh, can't you tell pretty quickly if they know what they're talking about or not? I think you can tell pretty quickly, but they should at least have their own art knowledge. Even if they aren't making art currently, they know all about art history and elements of art. They've seen a lot of art I suppose.

Antrese Wood: Yeah. Sabrina.

Sabrina Setaro: Yeah. I think, and that is how I approached this, and it has been helpful to me that that's all I can say, but I thought long and hard about what I want out of a critique first before I looked for a group to show my work, because I know who I am. At this point, I know what really ticks me off and what I don't want. I know I easily can be put down and I know I didn't want to have my growth stifled just because of comments on how art should look like. I had that in my past.

I knew that I'm not looking for that but I was looking really for growth and I knew I wasn't looking for approval necessary. Of course, it's so nice. You just want to hear, “Your art is amazing. Just keep doing,” yes, true. I think that is the icing on the cake when you hear that. In some way, shape, or form, it brings meaning to another person, whether that is great painting or not.

But I thought first, what I want to get out of the critique, and I really wanted to learn a lot through the critique. Yeah, I do have an arts council in my area, even though it’s rural. I just don't have any idea and I thought, “I'll give it a try.” But I allowed myself to stop going in case it is not working out, or if it's affecting me negatively, and that doesn't mean that they have to praise my work or like it. But I think sometimes you can sense.

I think thinking first, because I do believe that sometimes getting your art shown in the wrong crowd can actually have a very detrimental effect. It helps when you know what you want, I think, first before getting into a group and finding the people that you feel like, “Yeah, I can send something,” and that might be different for other people. I heard other artists that really like to have people saying "What are you doing is crazy." Somehow that worked for them, and that's fine, but know what you want first.

Beverly Woodhall: I don't know if I would want someone that praises my work, per se. You want someone that is educated enough to talk about it elementally, what's going on with it technically. Not so much, “Oh, it's so pretty.” Meaningful critique is what I would want. Sometimes they can be pretty harsh. I know, I remember in college, but that's not a terrible thing either depending how it's done, but.

Antrese Wood: Yeah.

Elisabeth Svendby: I don't have any experience with critique other than from you, or from family, which I don't really recommend. It's like family, I just tell them to just praise it and move on. Basically, don't say anything negative, because I don't know why, it just never works out. Also, I think they don't need that pressure.

Antrese Wood: Yeah, so funny. Well, thank you all so much for doing this. I love talking to all of you. You're like the highlight of my week.

Beverly Woodhall: Thank you, Antrese. It was really nice to have a chat.

Elisabeth Svendby: Yeah, it was fun.

Sabrina Setaro: Yeah, it's an amazing platform, and amazing conversations, and yeah, I hope it will help a lot of people too and make them make more art.

Antrese Wood: Yes, we need more art. Well, I hope you enjoyed this conversation with Sabrina, Elisabeth, and Beverly. You can see examples of their work in the show notes of this episode. If you want to learn more about joining us in Growth Studio or you know that you are ready to accelerate your growth, just go to savvypainter.com/join. We would love to have you.

Whatever level you're at, whatever stage you're at with your art, I can help you build your confidence as a painter, find your voice, and create the work that excites and fulfills you. Just pop on over to savvypainter.com/join or find the link in the show notes. Until Next time, this is Antrese Wood with the Savvy Painter Podcast. Talk soon.

If you want to take what you are learning here on the Savvy Painter Podcast even further, join us in Growth Studio. Growth Studio is a unique community of artists. We meet multiple times a week for live coaching, critiques, and demos. Just go to savvypainter.com/join.