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.

 

 

Outdoors Beauty

Back to photography, there is so much to say about this even when the basics can be found on any site today. As we know there are many kind of photographers, some work in a studio taking care of each detail and element of their composition as they want to show an accurate idea of what they have in their own mind, others make photographs and then digitally produced them either by taking only some of the elements or the composition as a whole, and others go out to look for beauty in order to capture it with their camera. Any of these styles is valid and can have an amazing final result.

When we go looking for the beauty of the environment we must be flexibe and be aware of what we have in front and that will change from a moment to another because of the light, wind or movement of what we want to capture. What do we must consider when capturing images outdoors?

- be patient, things are not waiting for us but we have to wait for them. For example, there is a special moment to capture a sunset and if you are not patient enough you could miss the special second that makes it magic.
- be creative, you can find a new way to capture what you want. Let's think that you wanted to capture an animal roaring, you imagined it with the animal in a particular position, its head leaned with wild eyes..., but that's not possible and you get tired of waiting, perhaps you should change your own position and think in another approach.
- be perseverant, if not today, tomorrow or next month we'll achieve what we want to capture. We all wanted to take that lovely scene of a mother with her cubs, but you arrive there and the mother is gone or the cubs are not close enough, anything can happen, don't get dissapointed just wait or come back later.
- be reasonable, and aware of how reasonable it can become your idea. We may have an idea too far from reality, we get stressed and start to doubt about about our ability, remember that sometimes we can't find what we want just because it's not the right place or the right way. Evaluate your purposes.
- have thousand eyes and take into account the eye of the camera sees different to yours.

Today I want to show you Aimee L Maher's photographs, she is a great example of what I'm telling above. Her awesome photographs of nature remind us how magical a camera can be when we have talent. Click on the images to enlarge them and visit her gallery and biography.

More than canvas

There are some artists who don't just reveal their imagination in their paintings but on the material they use as well. 

There are more materials to use beside canvas and paper such as wood, boards and metal among others. A material that an artist uses to paint on shows what he/she wants to say since it has its own characteristics that go beyond a simple way of presentation telling us about the inner meaning of the artwork.

We should all try to experiment with this as if we were playing trying to bring out even more of our creativity.

Today, I want to introduce you Abelone Petersen's work. She's an artist who works with different materials as she says in her biography: "I create many subjects and designs with a variety of mediums. The most exciting to me are the three dimensional paintings I create on the stones I find riding my Spirit pony here in BC Canada. The earth created these 'sculptures' long, long ago. This brings a spiritual realm to my work, a connectedness to all life. It is here I feel the closest to 3D design principles of sculpture combined with colour theory to bring forth the illusion of my vision within the stone."

Click on the image to enlarge it and visit her gallery. You can find more of her artworks at  http://abelonezone.com/

A personal view of nature

There are many ways to represent nature and our environment in general, each bears the weight of our feelings, concepts and memories. No matter the technique used, our personal imprint will be reflected in our work, or at least it should be if we consider ourselves artists.

One of the techniques that are most suited for this type of work, like for portraits is charcoal and chalk on paper. The artists that develop it they really have a very good hand since this technique doesn't allow excuses and they are usually are excellent drawing. This works show that are not required too many materials to perform a work of art, but simply an innate talent.

I want to introduce you Kacey Thorn's artworks today. She has a personal style drawing and painting animals that suggests she knows them very well. She also has a great control of the technique mentioned above which is, as she mentions in her biography, innate. Kacey also works with other techniques, such as acrylic, painting silhouettes that take us to unknown places and make us feel as if we were right there. Click on the images to see what I'm talking about and discover this young artist who has this wonderful sense of nature.

Find your style in oil - 1 - Magical Spots

As there is so much to talk about finding a personal style, we better start using numbers and separate them.

Let's imagine that we are in front of a landscape, there are thousand of ways to paint it but each one will determine different reactions in those who see our painting. There is a particular style that is based on (larger or smaller) spots which determine the element's shapes, as well as lights and shadows. When the painting is seen at a distance it seems to have much details, however it is not like that since it is a visual effect. It is what happens with Impressionism, for example.

Is it easy to make this kind of artwork? Of course not. Unlike hyper-realistic work, the artist must have a special ability to know what the final result will be. How can we make that what seems to be a group of simply spots at close range could look like a perfect flower in the distance? We need to have a clear idea of what we are painting, and a great knowledge of form, light and contrast of the elements. We also need to get carried away, realizing that what we see with our eyes should not necessarily be reflected on the canvas as it is, since art painting is partly capture our own assessment of what surrounds us. Moreover, the human eye tends to complete itself the missing parts, and by doing this each observer will have a subjective view.

This is a very artistic style and plays with lights and contrasts that highlights the shapes more than others. It's neither easy nor simple, it's very complex, but if you like this kind of style it will be very pleasant to develop once you get the technique and ease. Anyway, remember that it is not only about what we like but what we feel when developing a style.

As an example of this, I want to show you Katerina Iourashevich Ricci's artworks. She developed a wonderful and lovely style that, at least to me, inspires some kind of tenderness as if what she paints had gone through her personal filter of beauty and vision of the world before capturing it on the canvas. Click on the images to enlarge them and visit her gallery, which will not dissapoint you.

About oil. Do you have a personal style?

Let's talk about oil paintings today. Do you use oil? Do you have a personal style? Some artists create beautiful works, but they fail giving them a personal touch, which is essential if we want others recognize our work at just seeing it. No matter how good we are, if we don't get to define our work with a special style we'll never be truly appreciated and our name will never be truly recognized.

When an artist sees a landscape, for example, she/he highlights certain details in her/his mind, details that the artist usually takes into account in each work of the same characteristics. Moreover, when painting, the artist will surely choose a range of colors, a texture, a type of individual brushstrokes which make the difference.

We can talk a lot about personal styles, we've already done in fact, it is an inexhaustible subject. Today I want to show you Judy Jones artworks, she works with oil and acrylic and her art stands out because of its freshness, perspective, colours, lights and contrasts, which make her works perfectly recognizable. She usually works with realism but leaves the door of imagination open, making of each element a particular and undeniably personal creation.

You can find some examples of her work below, just click on the image and you'll find more details. I invite you to visit her profile as well where you'll find her gallery.

And seeing this artworks I remind you: it's not just about painting but creating as well. Enjoy the visit!