The ability to dazzle has three ingredients:
1. You have to dazzle yourself first and do what you did not know you could do;
2. The dazzled must be familiar with your old work or it will just seem normal; and
3. The mystery ingredient.
There was one painting at my art opening in Seattle that garnered the most attention. It was Pearls. with in the first two hours of the show opening 5 people had expressed interest in buying it. Why? I dazzled them.
It was the first of the series and the first time I used gold so much in a painting. It had sumi black all over it which is a color I never used before and it turned out gorgeous and mysterious at the same time. It was also the first to have a story written on the side of the painting. It was a breakthrough painting and everyone knew it . Even those who had never seen my work before. It was a perfect painting, and it was the first perfect painting of the series. Therefore it had the most power.
The first one is always the best. then you just try and recreate it. then it is instantly not as good as the first one. You have to keep reinventing yourself every single day to keep fresh. You cannot get good at what you do or you will be a hack. You can feel hack.
Every once in awhile you will do a painting without knowing all the places it will go. It has to paint itself. no ego allowed. Then you can dazzle.