What is a Cohesive Body of Work?

We are often told that galleries are looking for a cohesive body of work. But what does this really mean? And how do we achieve this?

Too often artists believe this means that they must paint for an audience and produce works that are guided by the market place or current trends. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Your best work comes from making the work YOU are excited about and following your own interests and intuitions.

What is required is to make your own “necessity” the center of your art making and to create a thread that follows it through all the work you do. How? The key is working in a series.

A series is not just a group of paintings (or any kind of art). It is the artifact of a process– a powerful creative process.

In this video I discuss how the idea of a series came into being , what the elements are of the process of making a series (and how it differs from the one-off process many artist employ) and how it can change both how you make art and what you make. The video is just a little over 30 minutes long (I know –too long for today’s short attention spans) but it’s well worth your time.

Once you’ve watched it, if you’d like to learn how to make this work for you, head over to Working In A Series–On Demand. I have taught this course as a 12 week Full Access course for several years and now it is available as a 6 week On Demand course. Registration is open through October 31st. And the 15% Early Bird Discount ends this Friday October 17th!