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

How I start a Painting; A Painting in Progress

'The Sound of the Waterfall Woke Me,' acrylic on canvas, 80 x 60 - STAGE ONE.

One of my ongoing themes is Waterfalls. I am painting this theme using several processes and with a focus on colour.  I have always liked tall vertical canvas shapes (as well as long horizontals) which allow you to explore the possibilities of conveying a sense of movement through colour and shapes. With this particular canvas I began with the 'drips' of water running down the canvas and a neutral, dark brown background. I built shapes in to the rivulets all the time thinking about sounds of water and water falling across rocks. 

My composition was also based on the unexpected sight of the waterfalls running down the mountains in Beigou, China, when I arrived sleepily early one morning in August 2016. I set myself a task: to combine verticals, shapes, movement and mark making with the starting point of this memory.

STAGE TWO

The painting, (stage two above) threw up lots of questions about how to accommodate these disparate shapes and colours into an image with both space and movement. I have to think about what kind of space I want and where my priorities lie; do I want abstraction and how much, or am I going to include landscape forms? I realised as I painted today that I want a layering of abstraction and calligraphy with a suggestion of place, though place is not so important as the image working correctly in its own terms. I had to add some yellow-green at the top, to open out the top of the canvas and give an illusion of 'sky,' and spatially it does help. I also set back some of the calligraphic marks, erased some, and simplified some of the edges of the painting. However, it is still bothering me and will need quite a bit more work to sort both the space and the composition which I feel does not yet gel. Parts may need lightening or erasing; I may need to take out parts I like in order to create that marriage of colour, calligraphy and abstraction. 

Some parts in stage one may even need to be re-established in stage two - which is why it is good to have photos of previous stages! (I'm thinking especially of the crimson colour on the middle right side of the painting which seems to be necessary now.)

Questions which are on my mind: how far do I want to flatten the space and simplify certain abstract elements? Do I need to darken or lighten colours? Do I need to focus so much on the illustrational, rock-like elements or are they just holding up the composition? (Though some darks seem to be needed). Could I express the idea of the waterfall in a simpler way?

I chose to post a painting that I'm having problems with because often we tend to see only finished work which makes the artist's job looks as if there was no wrestling with the image when the truth is that no artist finds resolution easy. Also, I wanted to show how a painting at a difficult stage with suggestions of how it might proceed. Many of my artist friends also take their paintings through several stages and my best work often comes out of the 'mess' and doubts.  

To be continued!

Thoughts on Painting and Some Tips

'Three Escape the Deluge,' acrylic and ink on canvas, 70 x 50 cm (2018)

As an artist sometimes it is interesting to stand back and analyse the source of your painting ideas and stylistic changes. The painting posted above has a different approach to some of my recent work in that it has included figures and is quite detailed. I was not sure about it but my husband persuaded me not to paint over it. I did not plan this painting but I believe that this theme was influenced by my large Dafen Biennale painting (posted on 20th July)), which explored thin washes of paint against texture and pattern, with figures in a landscape setting. I think that each painting an artist makes filters in to new work, even if in minor ways. Language is always referencing itself in unknown and unconscious ways.

'Daytime in a Jug,' acrylic and ink on canvas, 50 x 50 cm (2018)

While still involved in abstraction and finding forms for landscape that can be translated in to an abstract language, (as above) the figurative paintings are inspiring a different way of looking at abstraction. Painting is certainly not easy because while allowing the image to evolve within its own terms, I am also aware of what I am seeking from paint and in particular the use of mark making and calligraphy. It is like a spiral, sifting around and around through various competing elements until the ones with 'meaning' take a paint form.

My work also involves at times an autobiographical element. I paint pictures that may reference an event in my life, or thoughts about places and people, or a News item. I learned not to worry if these ideas enter some paintings unbidden - or if they seem to take me away from my 'core' vision. The more I paint, the more I believe that you should not censor ideas; just let them appear and keep working. Ideas are always evolving and for most artists there is a constant looking back at past paintings and extending aspects from those in new work. I also believe that working in a figurative way helps to strengthen your awareness of elements such as drawing and colour when it comes to abstraction. 

This painting, from two years ago, is about Migrants. Here the colour is much thicker and mostly oil paint. Working with thin paint was a result of working with ink on rice paper after my trips to China, but I also like the dialogue with thick paint as part of my process.

'Migrants,' oil on canvas, 70 x 50 cm (2016)