Thoughts On Inspiration

The best thing that an artist can do is to keep practising their craft on a daily basis, use a plethora of materials and stay inspired.

I find that these are key if you want to get to know your style and develop as an artist. I never thought that I would be painting floral bouquets in the impasto style after all these years painting contemporary landscapes. I figured this out by constantly practising and learning new painting techniques as often as I could. It’s allowed me to become the artist that I am today.

I want to talk about inspiration, because it’s a very vague and sensitive area for most artists. We find inspiration all around us. It’s essentially the driving force that pushes us to create and make. I always found inspiration in nature and other artists. Some may find inspiration in their thought’s dreams or in the most unusual of places. I guess it really depends on your subject matter. Each will resonate to what turns them on creativity. It’s extraordinarily personal.

Inspiration can come to me in a variety of ways. It normally derives from my latest painting and new compositions that artists use. Like the famous Pablo Picasso said, "inspiration exists, but it has to find you working". I tend to think ‘what will happen if I try this out?’. I tend to jot down these sporadic ideas, but I find that true inspiration comes from putting in those hours, which in my case, is oil painting.

Inspiration is curiosity, the willingness to experiment with the intangible ideas floating around in our head until we tap into it. I believe that we store these ideas subconsciously, and bit my bit inscribe them in our artwork - so that whatever we produce remains a just a reflection of our thoughts. I mean, that’s what art is right? A medium to express.

When I want to copy the composition of flowers in a photo or painting, I get really excited. This is because I know that whatever I produce, will additionally contain the thoughts and expression that I have harboured in the last few days. My ‘imprint’ will be left on the new rendition. It results in a painting I feel is true to me. My style, and my personality will show through these brush marks, colour choices and the overall mood of the panting. It’s why I never judge my paintings – why would I want to judge myself?