Want to become a successful Painter: No Problem. Paint for 10,000 hours and you might make it. Interview with Malcolm Gladwell - the Outliers

Artists often say that it takes 200 paintings to make it. Malcolm Gladwell advances the theory that it takes 10,000 hours of hard work to programme the brain to reach advanced levels of achievement in any pursuit. When translated into actual time, that would take 4 hours a day for 10 years.

I have spoken to several artists, who seem unable to describe how they manage to paint so succesfully. They just do it! Not only that, but many artists are uncomfortable talking about their art process.

Could it be that once they have banked up the 10,000 hours it takes to become a sophisticated acheiver, that the brain's reservoir of repeated experiences and judgements slides into overdrive and takes over and that there is a minimum of analysis that goes into painting? Could it be that most artists, don't fully understand this dynamic of painting....or it becomes almost mechanical?

How important is 10,000 hours for us becoming a skilled artist? Gladwell argues that it is absolutely critical if we want to become highly accomplished.

Source: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation,
George Stroumboulopoulos,'The Hour',and video on You Tube.