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!

When photografic art speaks of our inner world

Today I want to show you the work of an artist that exceeds normal expectations regarding photography. She is Juli Scalzi and it's difficult to define her. She is not just a photographer, she goes far beyond giving the images the ability to transmit more than a simple figure or a landscape in the composition.

She takes some elements, as does a painter, and she gathers them to express a very precise idea or feeling. The first time I saw her artworks I thought that they were paintings, and I was not so far from reality since she uses the images taken with her camera in the same way. Such works can only be done with great creativity and talent, they make you think and it's unavoidable to feel emotions at watching them. Her works also have a certain innocence, the ability to take normal elements and convert them into compositions full of symbolism.

No matter what type of photography that is, a landscape, an animal or a composition, she always manages to make it a work of art.  I leave some of her work below, you can click on the picture to see the details and enlarge, I invite you to do so you can also see more variety of her beautiful work and know more about Juli Scalzi, an artist that makes you think and feel.

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.