My Visit to the Customs House Museum

Eric Buechel: The Familiar: Exhibition June 1, 2017 Through July 30, 2017

It was a wonderful experience visiting and speaking to the many visitors at my solo-exhibition at the Customs House Museum over the holiday. During these events I never know what questions would be asked, but there is one that is asked often and was again asked. That question was "how long did it take me to paint that picture". My answer as usual was "I really don't know because I seldom look at the clock". Another question I get asked is how do you get to that level of skill and my answer in addition to practice is "look at other artists work as often as you can". The greatest artists who have ever lived borrowed from others including Raphael, Rembrandt and Picasso. And finally, I'd like to steal a quote from artist Chuck Close and give young artists a little advise. “Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightening to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself.”