The magic pencil

Some painters have problems to determine the best medium to use in order to show what they want to express and capture in their works. There is just something that I feel completely sure about and it's that it doesn't exist the best medium. The best medium is the one that makes us feel better with our final work and the one that makes us enjoy all the procedure. 

On the other hand, some times artists complain too much about not having the perfect materials. I could be the best example for this, I'm always complaining about the paper or canvas quality, about brushes and about all other kind of materials perfection..., and that's why when I see some people artworks I arrive to the conclusion that sometimes we lose sight of creativity in terms of materials.

A good artist is able to create amazing works simply with a pencil and paper, and when I say it's just simply I don't mean that it's easy , but that we should just only need those materials.

There are some great artists who perform their work with pen and paper and they are able to show the details and magnificence of a complex work done with other sophisticated materials. 

Paper and pencil, that's all, plus talent and creativity.

To illustrate what I comment I want to show you Maria Boklach's artworks. Her portraits have a perfectly defined style that combines realism with contemporary vision. Her works have a striking and powerful detailed realism while adopting a contemporary fresh air that renews the idea of what we consider a portrait. 

I encourage you to click on the images to see her galleries and know more about this young and excellent artist who delights the senses with her wonderful works.

What about mixed media?

What mixed media is? It's just when we work with diffent mediums and not only the usual ones. This is a plus for contemporary artists, being able to work with different materials that help to express themselves better, as for example with texture.

Why should we use mixed media? It's just about you, it's about the joy that you feel working like that, there are no technical reasons even when some say the opposite I personally believe that it's your personal choice. You can create wonderful pieces of art with mix media and the best of it is that they will all be different. The good thing is that you have an almost endless type of mediums to use, this goes from using oil and acrylic to other materials like wood, paper, wires or everything you want to express yourself.

Today I want to show you Lori Kingston' works, she a mixed media artist and she makes wonderful artworks with diffent techiques. What I most like of Lori is her rich imagination and that it seems that she lets herself go to creativity in her works, as if there were no limits to experiment. 

She is working in a Silhouettes Serie now. She is a great phographer as well and you can know more about her and her art just clicking in the images below.

When a photograph captures the soul

Let's go back to photographs, this incredible new way of art since the last century. We can talk a lot about it, but this time I want to focus on creativity & soul. 

There are some photographers that trap the spirit of the person or situations that they are shooting, people that are able to show the inner mood of anything that comes in front of them. They see what others don't. Let's imagine a portrait, we can make a piece of art of it or just a simple photo and that depends no only about the light, contrasts or other features. They just have talent and that's not something that anyone can study in any University.

I personally love photographs that go beyond being simple pictures.

Today, I want to show you Sotiris Filippou's work, who is one of the best examples about what I'm telling above.  He catches the 'spirit'. As he says in his biography "Photography is a way to express the secrets people don't see", and that's true.

In invite you to visit his complete gallery, just click on the images or visit his wonderful site: www.shot-iris.com . If you want to follow him you can do it here:  https://www.facebook.com/SotirisFilippouPhotographer/

Great sense of beauty in watercolor

Talking about the different mediums to paint, let's introduce to watercolor. One of the things that have always caught my attention about watercolor is the spontaneity that the artist need to express the idea. 

Those who develop this technique should be very clear about what they want to express and how. Imagine that you want to paint a flower, it is not as simple as it seems, you must have perfectly in your head the image of what you want to express, you have to know in advance where shadows and lights are, since you don't have much time to think once you put the brush on paper. This needs lot of experience and hard work before starting to achieve a good painting. 

This is not like oil or acrylic that if you get wrong you can wait (in general, sometimes not...) and correct it if you changed your mind or if you just made a mistake. With watercolor you get exactly what you do at the moment. So, think for a while before start working, that would avoid you some headaches. 

Giving shadows and lights to a watercolor painting is a real art, and as the name itself says "water" is much important, not too much, not few... You can get fantastics works with this medium, but take your time experimenting first.

There are some artists that perfectly know what they want to show and achieve it, thats Jasna Dragun's case. She is a flower watercolor painting expert, although her paintings are not limited to that (she works with different subjects and mediums as pastels or acrylic and is an incredible photographer as well). 

I invite you to see her paintings below just as an example of the great work that you can get with effort and, why not, talent.

You can see more about Jasna Dragun cliking on the images or in her blog: http://jasnaart.blogspot.com

Regarding this artist, just to reinforce the idea that watercolor is not as easy as some may think, she traveled throughout Europe as a member of the cultural and artistic society 'Metkovic'. In Zagreb, she is included in the joint work and activities of the group of artists gathered around of the Museum Prigorje, Sesvete. The first solo exhibition of paintings and drawings 'Impressions'was in the Gallery 'Kurija', Zagreb. She participates in several international and group exhibitions, juried exhibitions in the United States, VIII, IX and X International Exhibition 'Women Painters' in Majdanpek, Serbia, 5. Zaprešić Watercolor Biennal '09. / '10., and 6. '11. / '12. At the International Exhibition and Competition in Contemporary Art, Lituanian ArtWeek, Vilnius, Lithuania, won 1. place in the landscape category and 3. place in the watercolor category, participated in the AIR / HMC International Artists and 9 x 12 cm, the exhibition in Budapest, Hungary, the members HDLLU group exhibitions and solo exhibitions at the National University, Zagreb, 2011. Participates in international art contest-exhibition Confluence'12, in the Galerie Art Eterne, at the Lalit Kala Akademi,New Delhi (India), III. „VoVa”- MINIArt 2013. The international biennale of miniatures, Vonyarcvashegy, Hungary (8/2013). Won 2. place at the V. International Exhibition and Competition of Contemporary Art at the ST.Petersburg's Art Week, Russia (7/2013). 2015 The XVII International Exhibition and Competition of Contemporary Art in Moscow, won second place in the category of still life. She also participates in the International Exhibition 'Moslavačke miniatures'. Another technique that draws attention and which complements her artistic view of the world is a photo and so participates in the TIAS: BIENNIAL, INDIA, International Photography Show, 2014, in Virsa Vihar Art Gallery, Jalandhar, India. 

Large involvement in many solo, group and international exhibitions and has brought numerous awards and the last solo exhibition at the Library of the City of Zagreb 'Tin Ujević' showed works with higher boiling artistic concept executed in watercolor. 

As a member See.Me organization participates in a spectacular show and an international gathering talents from 100 different countries: The Story of the Creative in New York City in the summer of 2013. Also, her works have been presented in the mass of animated collage on one of the largest buildings on the Billboard in Times Square the heart of New York City in the summer of 2014, also her image is digitally displayed in the Louvre Paris celebrating the Exposure Award in July 13th, 2015 among 190 countries of the world. 

As well, she published in the book Croatian Neretva's Bulletin 2 / '10., 4 / '12., WWAB (International Dictionary of Artists) and in the 'Costumes in the Neretva Delta over the centuries.' She is the member HDLLU (Croatian Association of Visual and literary artists), Zagreb.