Madeline,
You pose an interesting dilemma. Mostly, I’m an artist and I
find myself troubled by friends who only and always give positive
feedback on my work. On the one hand, I am pleased by their
verbal support. On the other hand, I know they are out and out
on my side, and therefore I tend to devalue their feedback.
I expect different things from different people. Art is both a
matter of technique and a matter of taste. From non artist
friends I expect a mixture of support and statements of taste.
From artist friends I expect support, technical comment and less
often, statements of taste. Something like “It’s great to see
you’ve finished another piece. I notice your brushwork in this
section is inconsistent with the rest of the piece. It seems a
little odd. Did you do it deliberately?”
Friendship, however, is more important to me than my need to
give either positive or negative feedback that has not been
specifically requested. Anyway, those are my thoughts. MP