The Search for Inspiration

In between work sessions this week I have been following a heated discussion on the Linkedin website. A member of one of the artists’ groups caused a veritable storm of response when she announced that she was committed to producing a piece of art a day for the next year.  One particularly savage comment prompted her to explain more fully the reasoning behind her project and it was part of that reasoning that I found particularly interesting. She says that by forcing herself to create a piece a day, she is not only hoping to improve her work technically, but is also hoping ‘to find inspiration in places I never looked before’.

Like any job a daily routine can become boring. Creating art is no exception. So I will be interested to see the results of this girl's project and whether it delivers all that she hopes.  Meanwhile, I'm in no man's land - searching for inspiration for the next piece. Maybe I too should find a way to search in places I haven't looked before. In the meantime the above painting is last week's work.

This was one of those paintings that really ‘painted itself’.  It is nearly always the very first layer that I put down that will tell me how a painting is likely to go.  Woodland scenes like this one can be difficult if you get bogged down in detail too early, so I used a big brush and half closing my eyes put in the areas of light and shade with quick, loose brush strokes.  Working like this I look for shape and pattern that will inform the rest of the piece.

Next I focussed on the tree.  It will be evident if you have been following my blog, that I have  a bit of a thing for trees !  So this beauty made its presence felt pretty quickly.  There are so many different ways to tackle the leafy areas.  Having established my shapes of  light and shade in my initial work I go back to look for shapes within the shapes : patterns that are created by clusters of leaves between branches.  The result is something of a mosaic, or a kaleidoscope of colour which I occasionally exaggerate.