Approach to creativity and Hockney exhibition

I read an interesting newspaper article recently which was reviewing the latest research on approaches to creativity. The article was directed to businesses but there were some of the points were potentially relevant for photography.

The main point of the research is that new ideas are not only the result of eureka moments when sudden moment of insight changed understanding or creates a new product idea. In fact, about half of new ideas come from a persistent approach, where someone keeps trying and does not give up. The example cited was the IdNY advertising slogan. The designer had already produced a design that had been accepted but he nevertheless continued mulling over different ideas, until he produced the one that is now so well known.

One of the things which struck me at the Hockney exhibition at the Royal Academy shortly after reading this article was how Hockney painted the same (or similar) subjects in so many different ways: some highly stylised, some naturalistic, some with harmonious colours, some with vibrant colours. I was not concerned whether some of his work should be considered masterpieces or not as I am not sure how anyone can conclude one way or the other on that. For me the point that I took away was that even established artists probably experiment with different versions of a subject. Picasso is another famous artist where there seem to be a multiplicity of work on the same subject in different styles and different forms.

I acknowledge that the photographs I have been taking so far are conventional in style, and I should aim to experiment more. Most of the experimental versions will be failures, but with persistence there may be some which are effective.