Sources of Artists' Inspiration: How I find Inspiration.

'Walking Through Colour,' acrylic on 300 gsm paper, 29 x 21 cm

I find my inspiration in many different ways. Firstly, Nature always inspires me; from childhood when I spent hours walking through fields and forests and making up names for the various spirit-worlds I felt I encountered in each place, to my current emotional connections with the land, I continue to find exciting sources for ideas in my artwork. 

Landscape is usually the starting point though not always. But as I am also part of Nature (!) I like to let my hand find imagery by allowing it the freedom to translate uncensored various aspects of landscape experiences and memories. They become a composite of emotional and physical experiences, a parallel for journeys. They are also journeys in paint, each brush stroke being part of my response to paint and changing imagery in my mind.

''Night Walk,' acrylic on 300 gsm paper, 29 x 21 cm

This week I began to make a series of small paintings on paper to gather 'clues' and elements for possible paintings. These small works always help me because I can play with forms and colours randomly and make changes quickly with thick acrylic. I have not tried to force a 'finished' painting, they are merely ideas.

'Lakes and Rivers,' acrylic on 300 gsm paper

So, I'm taking various landscape elements and forms that mean something to me and assembling them spontaneously to see what might 'work' as a larger paint 'poem'. I'm open to possibilities and once I start working on canvas, things may be discarded.

'Night Trees,' acrylic on 300 gsm paper, 29 x 21 cm

At the same time, to widen my creative 'pool,' I am also working on canvas between 4 different paintings. I think I see the small works as an enquiry in to possible forms that could then enter troublesome, unresolved areas of the canvases. Recently I have trodden a line between several lines of enquiry in new canvases, some more landscape referenced, some more towards paint and abstraction. 

To be continued.

'Mountain Trails,' acrylic on 300 gsm paper, 29 x 21 cm