Today I learned that Françoise Gilot painted almost daily until the age of 1001,2. Although Gilot was known partially for her romantic partnership with Pablo Picasso and marriage to Jonas Salk, she was also a very accomplished painter. I'm not a big fan of the majority of her artwork but I admire her effort.
Françoise Gilot - Magic Mountain [ 1989-91 Oil on canvas, 73 x 92.1 cm ]
Gilot's estimated body of work was around 2,000 paintings and 5,000 drawings3. She worked almost daily and sometimes as much as 20 hours a day. I admire that sort of work ethic and I have the opinion that luck is mostly just a game of mathematical odds. I think you'll find this in every successful practitioner of almost anything.
I ran into this tidbit while researching various artist studios. I suppose since winter is coming on, I'm thinking more about indoor activities which started me in on the project of reworking the cabinetry for my studio4. And since I've spent a bunch of time in the car recently thinking about my studio, I've also been thinking about it's purpose. I spend anywhere from three to ten hours a day at my desk in my office. Combining my office desk with a studio means I'll be introducing another set of tools at my table. Although I kinda enjoy being the master of none, I curious as to which will garner the most of my attention.
- Françoise Gilot - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Françoise_Gilot
- Françoise Gilot, Artist in the Shadow of Picasso, Is Dead at 101 - https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/06/arts/francoise-gilot-dead.html
- Françoise Gilot, 97, Does Not Regret Her Pablo Picasso Memoir - https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/11/t-magazine/francoise-gilot-picasso.html
- David A. Windham - TIL - Notes/House/Studio