The world around us

Artists often paint what surrounds them, sometimes realistically and literally while other times they show that world adding imaginary or symbolic elements. Personally, I prefer the second case. 

It always amazes me the way in which an artist can take to the canvas certain symbolic elements in a practically unconscious way, and not just the elements but the colors. Obviously, this shows how wonderful the plastic arts are since we extract visions and experiences from our deep interior.

Today, I want to show you Maria Woithofer's artworks, I think this could help all those who love painting to improve their ability and know a bit more about what they do and why. She started painting with oils but she currently works with acrylics and watercolor as well. The case is that Maria had two vivid experiences about what was around her as she was born in Poland but moved to Greece, what is a big change for anyone indeed, and we can see that in her paintings, she tells us about her world with her own vision and portrays the wonderful nature for us. 

There are two main things which mainly call my attention about her works and this are: elements and colors. Regarding elements, as you can see in her "Summer" work below, for example, she adds symbolic concepts that takes us to a complete world in a painting. It's her idea of summer, her feelings and experiences playing together to make us have a real sense of what she wants to show us. Besides that, there is some kind of joy in her work. If we visit her gallery we'll see that she's also a great realistic painter as she shows in most of her works, but it seems as if she resigned some perfection to highlight "meaning" in each of her brush strokes, what is in fact contemporary art. 

Regarding color, this calls my attention as well since she has a great use of it linking colors with moods, seasons and personal visions adding, this way, another symbolic element to her works.

What can we learn about all this? Well, in your paintings:

- Put your personal touch.

- Use non traditional elements in a composition.

- Take into account that colors mean emotions.

- Each brush stroke is important.

- Let yourself go ...

Click on the images below to know more about Maria Woithofer, you'll enjoy it.

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.

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.

 

 

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.