You've seen Jack Vettriano's paintings: the butler and maid holding umbrellas for the elegant couple dancing on the beach, for instance. Some denounce him as a hack, others love his work for its cinematic feel--I'm on the fence on this one, whereas Thomas Kinkade's pictures make me queasy. Either way, the story of Vettriano's development is interesting. In Artists & Illustrator's magazine he said,
"I found my way into painting by accident when a girlfriend gave me a box of watercolours for my birthday. It took me 18 years to find my style. Like many amateurs, I had the desire and will to create but not the ideas to make the pictures I wanted...By 37 or 38, I knew I had a certain style, but no subject." His Eureka moment was realizing that he wanted to paint women and their erotic power.
Certainly he has an admirable technical ability. He says, "I taught myself to paint by copying. It's the best way to understand how a painting is put together and how to master techniques."
Many writers have suggested a similar approach to mastering writing: actually copying, preferably by hand, whole pages of the work of a writer you admire. And perhaps the other lesson from Vettriano simply is patience.
(For help in getting started writing, see my book, "Your Writing Coach, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon and other online and offline retailers.)
