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 artist use. I tend to think ‘what will happen if I try this out?’. I tend to jot down these sporadic ideas. 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?