My initial attempts at drawing and painting were slow and stuttering, often things out of proportion, or colours fairly bland, because I am only learning about layering and finishing (I am still learning so don't shoot me down).
So somethings looked passable, some fairly funny and some painful, but in each I learnt something, even if it was just 'to start again'
So here are my faltering steps....
This is a follow on from my first post .....
I was working on some canvases trying to create a common theme, and not getting very far very quickly, so I started playing with blues and greens, eventually producing this painting that is meant to represent Summer
Its always good to have somewhere or something that gives you inspiration, especially when you really really don't have any.
How do you turn that dry patch, where you can't write anything, or you aren't able to even start putting paint onto a canvas or piece of paper, because to be honest you don't even know what colour paint its going to be, let alone what the thing you are going to paint is.
For me, Its an emotional thing. I have to feel something, some emotional feeling that kicks my internal tyres and I run with that. I don't really know where its going to go, unless Im using some sort of stock picture as a basis for the painting.
The last few paintings I have done have just been from colours in my mind.
But the other really good inspiration for me is the water, either the sea or local rivers. Its the wildness and untamed nature of the sea I love. Respect it or don't, but you'll only survive it if you do.
Something like this from a paddle on the Deben in 2014.
After a busy week last week, I thought Id try something very abstract but also fairly restricted in terms of design, and which had texture in 3D
Sounds a bit of a plan, although if I had thought too deeply at the start, it wouldn't have ended up as it finished
So, this is how it started:
just individual lines with a thin paintbrush, looking a bit like threads in embroidery.
It built up a bit, one line at a time, slowly filling the white space in. I didn't add a base layer of paint as the white starkness made the contrasts even better.
it was a tad threadbare, so I added more and more lines, stretching the darker colours in the centre out towards the edges. As it filled in, so the white canvas disappeared until the finished version ended up as you can see at the bottom of this page. I love the texture of the surface, in places a mm in thickness, and the colour feels like it is shooting past you as you watch it.
I am enjoying painting in this style and am interested in what people think of it.
I quite like painting water.
Whether its waves, the stormier the better, or water on the river reflecting the sun, or water that's hiding something dark underneath.
But I also like the still calm water you see in slow moving rivers and in ponds.
The feeling of moving through that sort of water is nothing short of uplifting to your mind. It doesn't have to be quiet even. Its just the feeling of peace.
So I started painting what I could see in my mind to describe this, yesterday and it turned out like this
It is still very much work in progress but is just made up of many many lines of blues browns and greens and a touch of white.
But a bit like the first painting I posted, the time it takes to do the small actions also helps me to focus my mind and concentration, which is often not possible in that ping pong inside my brain.
So, I shall carry on adding to this and another painting Im doing in between other things and update this as it goes...
What gives you inspiration to draw, paint, make music ?
Is it the light of the sun reflecting off the water ?
Is it that it brings out something inside you that is already there or does it create something inside you that wasn't there in the first place ?
I don't know the answer to be honest. All I know is that sometimes that happens and sometimes it doesn't.
For example, this photo inspired me to paint this. It wasn't the best interpretation of it but I liked how the water shone out. Ive taken a long time trying to replicate it though.
For me, the real way I paint is emotion. If I don't feel something there is no point trying to paint or do anything creative. It will be dull and empty (and likely some of what I have on Instagram is just that).
The flip side is that the emotion can go anywhere and nowhere, I just have to wait to see how its going to end.
these are both based on the same photo, that I can't put my finger on, but was along the Deben near the cut. The Pencil drawing was soon after I kayaked there and the painting was more emotionally driven as a painting.
Complete Abstraction This painting started out as a bit of an abstract painting with a dark background with bright colours on it. Its a lar...
