A Different Kind of Painting Inspiration

  

 

 

"Fractured" Reminds me of sunset light shining through tall grasses.

Last January I saw that Nicholas Wilton's free course called the"Creative Awakening Challenge" was going to be offered in February.

My art making plate was already dangerously full last winter, but this class was exactly what I had been looking for. I had been searching for awhile for another way to approach my art making and Nicholas promised that his 20 minute a day "Bloom" practice could really transform the way I made my art.

I had never allowed myself to paint this type of sadness before, it helped me.

 

The class was only for 25 days and when I read that we would be making paintings too and not just listening and observing, I squeezed a little more space onto that overflowing plate and signed up.  

"Feelings of Hope" I felt compelled to start with pink and green.

 

Essentially, Nicholas was teaching us how to tap into our own feelings as inspiration for creativity. This may sound very odd to many of you, but this was never a topic discussed in my time at art school. 

 

Design, Value, Color theory, drawing skills, all the essential building blocks were covered but never anything about how to use emotion as inspiration, this was very new territory for me. I suppose they just expect that you already know how to do this, but I honestly didn't, of course I learned how in the sense of using color and design to reflect a mood, yes, but not tapping into what kind of marks and color choices reflect me.

"Headache" I tried to capture how awful I felt that day.

Imagine using NO photo references, just sitting with an emotion, choosing a color and putting it down on the paper however you want. Then choosing how to respond to that color and continuing for 20 minutes or longer if you wish, but only 20 minutes were required. 

"Feeling Stressed" The work load was overwhelming me.

  

It was fascinating over those 25 days to see what colors I chose, what marks I loved making. I had no idea how much I loved cadmium orange as an exclamation mark of color, or how just the movement of scribbling with a colored pencil could feel so good and then the satisfaction of spreading thick acrylic paint over it all with a palette knife.  I could use any materials I wanted, I used acrylic metallic inks that I rarely use, it was so much fun!  

"Feeling a Little Blue" I love this painting so much.

I chose to make small paintings on paper, some of them amazed me with their power or beauty, others were not that great, but it didn't matter. The point was to practice gaining confidence in connecting to my own inner north star.

These paintings are the first seven I made in order day by day so you can see how varied the images were. I certainly wasn't sure what I was doing at first, but I did figure out a format eventually. For me, 5 x 7 inches was a good paper size and after the first four, I changed from painting in my sketchbook to heavier 185lb watercolor paper.

"Constrained and Contained" An image from a dream that morning. 

All of this exploration involved making abstract art and after 25 days of trying this type of creating, I was interested in figuring out how to take what I learned and combine it with my usual style of realism, but I will save that post for another time, so until then, challenge yourself to try a different type of inspiration for making your art, you might surprise yourself.

Happy Creating! 

>^-^< 

Tina 

 p.s. If you are interested in learning more about Nicholas Wilton, his website is:www.art2life.com  This link sends you to the Sunday Bloom tab where he posts weekly insights about art making.

He also has a YouTube channel called Art2Life