On becoming an 'ARTIST'

Painting Buddha will always be my favourite activity - it feeds my soul, and is calming and meditative. I am already doing another!

Something very strange has happened to me in the past few weeks.......it would make an interesting psychological study for the world of art. At what point do people who love to paint, draw and create, at what point do they become an 'ARTIST'?

Painting this last week helped........

'Love of my Life' It has taken five years for me to paint a tribute to my guy who died in 2009. I think I have made a start, and have plans for others, too. I love portraits - I am painting a real person with character, personality and individuality. I try to find a person's uniqueness.....

Is it a self-imposed term that is rooted in the way we perceive ourselves?
Is it to do with our daily routine, output and number of hours at the easel?
Is it measured by the standard and quality of work as we learn and improve? Who exactly is judging this?  We are hardwired to criticise ourselves, the inner gremlins see to that. Our friends are hardwired to be kind and love everything we do.
Is it when we finally gather the courage to show our work online, to cease talking about ourselves in a derogatory way, to actually LIKE some of our work. We join groups, do classes and chat with hundreds of people doing much the same.
Is it the drive to perfectionism that I seem to have been born with? I hate mediocrity, shamefully I have never taken up anything that I knew I couldn't shine at (like sport, for example)?

.......or is it when you are seen as an artist by the public, in your posts and albums, in comments, in follow up communications?

Crazy, fluffed out drama queen of the house - Gracie!

All I know is that, after five years of trying, starting with crude stick figures, I do feel that I can call myself an artist. Good or bad rests only in the eye of the beholder, I realise that it is not for me to judge myself. My mantra is to paint what I love, to paint from my heart, from the inside out, to paint things that move me or have elicited an emotional response. I need to paint with authenticity. That's what makes me happy. The fact that some people like my work is an added bonus, a privilege.

A more expressionist take from a very old but much loved photo from a distance. Roy was leaning against the wall of out 16th century fisherman's cottage by the sea at Minehead Harbour. A fleeting moment from the past.......now in shadow

So my conclusion? It's just a word. I am a lifelong teacher - doesn't mean I am a GOOD teacher 9I think I was!!)...therefore being called an artist is meaningless unless you create for yourself, with truth and daring, when you are driven to it by some inner force which guides you instinctively to that easel every day!

Yes, I want to sell my art on sites such as Fineart and Redbubble. In a gallery. Wow!!!! But one's own satisfaction and happiness in the very act of creation must be at the very heart of it all. Still a WIP!

Arizona Rocks revisited 

Experiencing Monterey - one of my favourite places in the world

Journalling and the quest for my imagination

 I wish someone out there would help me in my quest for my imagination. I am so rooted in my left brain that I can't seem to break free. I love being creative, love practising art and making bright visual journals but I am still unsatisfied. I spend hours looking at other artists' work and then slip into the black pit of despair where the words "Why can't I think up these ideas?" spinning round looking for the answer. I've read countless books on creativity - all of them making the point that we all have a fertile, creative imagination locked inside of ourselves and that we just have to do this or that exercise and the ideas will flood in. Well, after many exercises, the floodgates are still tight shut. I don't want to copy anybody else....so I sit and my table and wait...and wait.......However,....

on the positive side, I do love certain activities which help. I have quite a few journals on the go at any given time - but the main ones I use every day are my 'day' journal, A5 size which lives by my bed, and my 'big' journal (even the names lack originality!) Size is the key here. My A4 size journals are for the odd moments when art inspiration strikes, for working at length or in layers on techniques and making bold statements, while the smaller journals are picked up almost every hour and are full of writing, notes, sketches, drawings and much more musing. Apart from these, obviously, are my shelf-full of my favourites, the travel journals.  Here are a few recent pages from my latest big journal (number 6).......

The strata are angry

Man in Albuquerque with big earring at sunset

mesh2

I am finding it very hard to move pictures around in blogger - I may have a bug in the system. It has taken me hours of repeating and re-introducing photos and I still can't get photos to sit beside each other, like the two above. Sometimes it works, often the photo disappears or tags itself onto another. IT is definitely not user-friendly!

Something very useful I did learn was that you have to put some effort into thinking about what really inspires you to the point of wanting to express your feelings about it - thinking hard about what impacts upon you. For me it was simple...I am not turned on by florals, pretty patterns or whimsical cliches. What does inspire are dramatic landscapes, landforms and rocks, the sun, unusual people, portraits and all kinds of abstraction. There are others on the list but I come back to these every time. Instead of books on how to draw, I have now bought some wonderful books of photos and art of these topics - stunning books on mineralogy and geomorphology. Colour is another huge source of ideas - pink, obviously, but it has to be stark and bright! I have 30000 photos of my travels round the world. It is not hard to take a wander through the files - India for example, and an idea takes hold. So, the answer to finding your imagination must be two-fold - follow your interests and passions - and keep practising as you do get better!!! (slowly!)

Here are a few more....I'll do my small journal in a different post. I hope to attract some fellow journalers with these posts - all comments welcome (well, maybe not all!!).

She sees the world through.........

colourisme

You can see I like trees....