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. 

What we see and what we get

Many people who want to devote themselves to photography or just enjoy making photos don't know that what we see is not always what we get as a result. Some have the ability to see something simple and make it extraordinary while others sometimes fail to capture the best picture of what their eyes see.

We must transform our eyes on lens, we need to understand what will be the vision of our camera.

I will show you some simple tips that some may consider obvious:

- We have a beautiful landscape in front of us, but it can be rebutted if we take it completely. Which is the most attractive frame of all we see with our own eyes? So, pay attention to the capture that has the best composition of elements.

- We may have found the shot that best represents what we want to show, but has this the proper light? Maybe there's another shot that doesn't have such a good composition but whose light causes a more attractive effect.

- When it's about moving objects, that's one of the most difficult kind of photographs. The shot can't be before or after what we need, besides that it must be a clear and accurate capture and not a blur one.

- Be focused... (yourself, not just the camera).

We find many beautiful pictures that actually  could have been wonderful if the photograper had taken into account a few details.

Today, I want to show you Chandra Nyleen's work. This artist shows us how to take the details into account for a perfect picture. She has many photographs in movement that excellently capture the scene, as well as different landscapes which she has managed to make the most.

Click on the images to know more about Chandra Nyleen. You can also see her works at : http://1-chandra-nyleen.pixels.com/index.html

When the magnificence of nature is shown through a camera

We have a camera and the desire to capture beautiful images but that is not enough. There are many ways to take pictures, and those who do not perform this task in a professional way can consider that it is easy, but it's not...

We can gather 100 people with the same type of camera in the same place and none of them will take exactly the same photograph. It's about "eye", talent and creativity. Some photographs not only show the object that has taken the camera but beyond, they pick something that goes beyond words and explanations and that is inherent in what has been achieved through the image, a particular image that is different though thousands have seen it before, because it has its own soul. 

Some photographers specialize basically in nature, everyone can take a picture of a flower or an animal, but some of these specialized photographers have the ability to show it splendidly, simply through the eye of their camera, their own eye, which can see what nobody else can.

There are photographers who make art and are able to show nature in all its magnificence as no one else can do it. Capture the beauty and complexity of nature requires great sensitivity and only a true artist can do it.

Today, I want to show you Evie Hanlon's work. She is an Australian photographer and artist that delights us with her wonderful photographs that capture the essence of what she wants to show. She is a true artist who shows her vision of nature beyond what the simple eye can see.

You can click on the images to see her complete gallery, and I suggest you to pay attention to her drawings as well, which have a magical touch.

If you want to know more about Evie Hanlon you can visit this link: http://www.redbubble.com/people/eviehanlon?ref=account-nav-dropdown

The pleasure of being an artist

Back to oil painting. There are several ways of using oil and each one gives us the opportunity to show something different. Whether it's of realism, surrealism, conceptual, abstract or impressionism, among others, each serves to express ourselves in different ways and, moreover, fits our personality. Sometimes it's not easy for those who begin with painting determine the style that best suits their needs.So we should ask the following questions:

 - What I want to show?
- What it is the most important of what I want to show?
- Are lines what should prevail?
- What I want to show is best achieved with spots?
- Are contrastsrelevant in the subject?
- Is the softness of shapes and vanishing which enhances the idea?
- Are colors important or I prefer to enhance the central figure?

Once we have answered these questions we find it easier to know how to start and where we're heading.

Today, I want to show you Marla McPherson's artworks. She is a painter and photographer as well, but I'll talk about her paintings now. Marla express herself in vibrant colors and conveys the peace and beauty in her artworks basically through an impressionist style that characterizes her. She has no doubt about the above questions since she gets exactly what she wants to show. It seems natural to her the use of colors to capture the idea of beauty as well as a splendid use of shadows and lights that enhance her works.

 As Marla McPherson says in her biography: "I find each time I work I take a spontaneous journey into the unknown. Every time I pick up a brush, palette knife or shoot photos with my camera, I experiment with the power and relationships of color, line and form. I feel very fortunate to be an artist because of the pleasure and excitement I get to experience from this process of continual rediscovery. "

Painting and create are real pleasures, no one can be an artist without feeling it. Recreate the world according to our own look is a privilege. So, let's be as Marla, let's enjoy our work knowing that comes from the depths of our soul.

 Click on the images if you want to see more: