Find your style in oil - 2 - Beyond Realism

As we've been talking about, having your own and personal style makes the difference in art. There isn't a better or worse style, it's just about how you want to let your creation go. 

About oil, one of my favourites mediums, you can work with it in so many different ways that it would be impossible to describe in just a few lines. Besides, let's take into account that an artist is always improving her/his work, changing, tasting, facing challenges to find the perfect style that fits their inspiration. We grow as human beings, as persons and as artists as well. 

Regarding this post, realism is one of the most extended styles in the history but don't think that they are all the same. Each artist has a special brushstroke and a concept of contrasts and colours as well as a vision of the elements. There is one style in realism in which converge the classic figurative realistic style with the contemporary artist's vision and hand adding the effective touch of modernism that is needed now a days. This kind of art takes us further than the classic one pushing us into a reality which goes beyond the simple figure but to its environment and circumstances as well. 

As I mentioned before, we can find lot of realistic artists in history but they are not all the same even the same, just the opposite. Fortunately, we still have some artists who work with this style and oil medium and who give us as a present their wonderful artworks to our delight. As an example of this, I want to introduce you Dominique Amendola's art, which is already well know around the world. She works with realism but with her special touch and style in which she constantly works. You can click on the images to enlarge them and know more about this excellent artist and visit her site http://dominiqueamendola.com .

The hidden side of reality

There are many ways to show reality since it's not alway bright and coloured and artists know much about this. When it comes about photographs things get very interesting as they have to capture that secret and inner message that keeps hidden in the elements that are portrayed. Looking at a picture we realize about a reality which sometimes it's not the one that we could assume in advance, there many details that tell us a lot about a story and that play a symbolic rol. Of course, we have to pay attention and be opened minded enough to go beyond a simple element. 

It's amazing, for example, how just a leaf can tell us about a hard season allowing us to imagine all that exists around it, a dense forest, a gray and empty city, a failed romance, a path which no one treads, or whatever your imagination and emotions let you go. There is the magic of such photographs, those that with a couple of simple elements make us travel to ourselves, our experience and imagination. There is clearly seen the good eye of a good photographer.

As an example of this kind of modern photography, I want to show you this wonderful works by  Lynne Guimond Sabean that Janusian Gallery kindly let me use for this post. You can click on the images to enlarge them and know more about this artist and the Gallery and check  www.janusiangallery.com as well. I hope you enjoy the visit.

Ancient Traditions and Contemporary Art

All artists have a cultural and environmental background, some reflect what they have seen and experienced at certain times of their life while others pass down from generation to generation the ancient customs of their ancestors through art. In either case, the essence of the artist is like a mark on the work, an imprint that tells us about the past, the sites which have been seen, the emotions that have been felt and his/her beliefs. Since ancient times man has felt the need to convey through art what happened, what was said, what they believed, even before writing appeared as a way of transmitting the word. Those are particular symbols that tell us stories from the most distant antiquity.

Unfortunately, fewer and fewer artists represent the beliefs and stories with which they grew up, what belongs to their culture and go with them beyond where they live. 

But there are still some artists that recreate the ancient art in a more contemporary way and give us the gift of their traditions' beauty. They born with an innate talent, as if that could be passed from generation to generation, and adapt it to the techniques of today. As an example of this, I want to introduce you Aditi Maaheshwar's artworks, she's an Indian artist who mainly paints with acrylic on wood and tells us part of her tradition in her wonderful works rich on colors and symbolism. I invite you to click on the images to enlarge them and visit her gallery to know more about this talented artist.

Motion and Emotion

In recent decades the photograph emerged as a real artistic expression. New technologies and the ability to access different areas that we were previously restricted help on this, but it isn't so easy. It's not just arrive and shot, as I told several times in this blog, there are lot conditions to make art from a capture.

Personally, one of the photographic styles that I attracts my attention is the one that manages to capture scenes in motion and much more if those things are not around me daily.

We all have a relatively limited life, we can't be in different places at the same time, and we only have access to certain situations, also our eye usually lose that glorious moment that can only be captured by a camera and the eye of a good photographer. How often have we been in front of a herd of horses running, or facing a spectacular fall, or at a funny situation that we miss details? That's where photography within its wide variety of styles, occupies a prominent place to our satisfaction.

The eye of a talented photographer with a camera can show us sites that we'll never visit and stop those moments that otherwise might be unnoticed. But it's that second, less than a second in fact, that makes us feel as if we were there and give us the idea of a whole situations with just a 'shot'.
Motion makes us feel emotions, it tells us a story.

Regarding this, I want to show you Daniel Hebard's work today. He's a great photographer who developed this wornderful style, among others. Click on the images to enlarge them and to know more about this artist.

Mixed media - Dare to follow your creativity

Some people find it difficult to work with mixed media by failing to reconcile different techniques at the same time. Logically, we should know which media to use in each layer, basically to make our work lasting, or to not produce unwanted spots during the process, but beside that there should not be major complications. The truth is that working with mixed media helps us go a little further in our creativity because we can use different resources and achieve different volumes.

The problem with mixed media, at least I personally think,  is that some artists are too tied to the idea of perfection and realism, or to what was ancestrally accepted in a particular technique either watercolor, oil, acrylic, etc. We're scared, sometimes, to try something new, to have a new vision, to take some fresh air. As in all activities the artist must mature, but in art growth is much more important than in other areas since that give us some kind freedom to work without inhibitions, to try new ways of expression, what isn't easy if we are not able to break with what we have learned and reinvent ourselves in our art.

As  I use to say, there is not just a way to paint a bird, a house, a woman, a landscape or whatever. It's about us, it's about our emotions at seeing that and show it through our paintings. Today, I want to show you M E Wood's work as an example of this, an artist that works with different techniques and gets very creative and personal works. Click on the images to enlarge them and to visit her gallery.

When Art Makes Magic Come True

There are some artists who just tell us about real world, others tell us about their feeling and there others that show us their inner magical world.

In a way, all artists show their inner world even if they paint a landscape since they show us the way they see it. But it's not that simple. As humans we have a personal world that goes beyond other people understanding, no matter how much we try to explain it we can't do that with words, it's really difficult at least. It gets harder if that inner world is full of magic, as Michele Avanti's one, whose creativity seems to come from the depths of her soul. She works with traditional mediums as acrylic but also with photographs and digital art.

Seeing her work we can't help but notice the details, each of them is important for the interpretation and each element is placed to tell us something. Her wise use of color added to the subject and the composition as a whole takes us to a magical world of fantasy, a world that the artist make us possible to almost touch it with our own hands.

Here below you can find some examples of the magic work of this magic artist. Click on the images to enlarge them and visit her gallery where you can find her wonderful art.

Colours and emotions

Colours are complex and subjective, each of us reacts differently to one or another colour, even when supposedly there are some generalities about them (i.e red: passion, green: relax ...) there are no strict rules, depends on our experiences and memories.

Our life is surrounded by colours that relax us, excite us, depres us, make us angry, bore us, give us joy, etc. Our range of emotions is so wide as the color chart. But, when colours are in a painting they are something more since they show the artist's emotions. Some things can't be told with shapes but we can do that with colours.

That's why it's so difficult to choose the right one, it's not just because it matches or not but to exactly reflect what we have inside ourselves.

Even if realism is our style, a simple sky could change the whole composition if we don't choose the right colour. It seems obvious, if we talk about sky it has to be light blue, for example, but it's not just like that. The best pieces are those that are able to transmit a feeling or a state through small details, a pale face tell us something different about the character than a rose one as well as a purple sky is not as a light blue one. We are talking about a condition (health, social, frame of mind), a past, a life or/and an expectation.

If this detail has much relevance in realism much more will be on other styles, as abstract.

According to my experience, you should not think too much when using colors, at least not until you get to obsess, but simply have a very clear idea of what you want to express and try to immerse yourself in the sense that it conveys. If you get your work out of your inside and not just your head then the colors will speak for themselves.

I want to show you Cathleen Edick's artworks as an example of this, she has a great use of colours and developed a style in which they are protagonists in all ranges. Click on the images to enlarge them and to know more about her varied work.

And as my father used to say: "there is nothing written about tastes and colours", so let your creativity.