Progeny Print Exhibition

Patsy Bush, Profile -  Linocut

Last month I was lucky enough to be able to take part in a print makers exhibition and exchange, in Victoria. 

Today I received my set of exchanged prints in the mail and I'm kind of in awe at the quality of the work presented. So I thought I'd share some of my favourites with you. (All prints are copyrighted to their respective owners).  They came to me gorgeously packaged in their custom made storage box - but I'm definitely going to be framing some of them!

 

Dot Leslie, Daughters - reduction Linocut

Deb Jackson, Sea of Karma - linocut

Vicki McKay, Progeny - Etching w/ Aquatint

Sue Grossman, Tulip - Linocut

Sue Baulch, Donkey - Etching w/ Aquatint

Sarah Wherry, Metamorphosis - Screen Print

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Finding your artistic style

I did a painting yesterday. A complete painting, it took me less than half a day, and I LOVE it!

Tsunami - Mixed Media on canvas

I have played around a little with this style of painting, and each time I've been really happy with it. And I love doing it. So it got me thinking about artists finding their own unique style. It's something that most successful artists have. If you think about Jackson Pollock for instance (yes, I just watched Pollock last week and really enjoyed it!), but if you think about his trademark paint splashes on canvas, you understand that was his undeniable own style. David Bromley, who I also happen to love, has his own distinctive style of painting. His nudes are amazing, yet they are distinctly different and his own. Picasso was unique, as was Van Gogh, and even our own Ken Done has his own distinctive style and branding.
In the case of Jackson Pollock, he stumbled across his style while working in his studio, by spilling a little paint on the floor and liking the way it looked, which caused him to try it on canvas. The rest, as they say, is history.
I've been feeling lately a little...emotional to say the least, and while I love most of my paintings, this one I did yesterday, feels different to me. It feels almost like a bit of an epiphany in itself. That might not make a lot of sense to you, or it might make complete sense, but to me if definitely feels like I found my style. Like this was how I was meant to paint.
I think it's something about the absolute creativity of it, rather than painting a landscape, which, while yes is creative, is less so than letting the image form as you paint. Not sure if that makes sense, but basically, instead of having the picture in your mind and then painting it to look like a copy of it's real life version, this way of painting is about putting the paint on the canvas and letting it dictate what the resultant picture will be.
I've used acrylic, watercolour, gouache, and ink, and mixed in Atelier Interactive medium, along with Matisse Spreader medium and plain old water. And I let the picture form as I was painting it. A curve this way or that was accentuated, some more medium sprayed over here or there when you could see something forming. And the end result is awesome, yes, even if I do say so myself!!
I titled it Tsunami at first because of the wave I could see forming in the picture, but the more I look at the picture, and the more I love it, I think it's also fitting in another sense. The last year and a half has been like a tsunami of sorts in my life. I've had so many major life events happen in such a short span of time, that at times it feels like a tsunami flooding everything. Which for the most part has been cathartic and refreshing and a much needed cleanse and change if you will, but occasionally the wave subsides to reveal something pretty raw. It's very gratifying to be able to paint and put that emotion into pictures sometimes.

What inspires creativity?

Since it's been a little while since I was on here (life really does get in the way sometimes!!), and I haven't done much in the way of artwork in the last month, I thought I would ramble about something other than what I've been working on!
I've always had this thought that being an artist in any one area or another isn't mutually exclusive. You quite often find that people who paint and draw, also dabble in playing music, or vice-versa. And that goes for any type of the arts; music, visual or performing arts, writers, textile artists or photographers, etc. And it made me think of the reputation of the artist who is a little (or a lot) nuts, or the poet who's so into his own writing that he's melancholy all the time. Why are these stereotypes out there? Then I started thinking about myself; I quite often have so much in my head that I just don't know where to begin. Or I start one project and can't get it out fast enough. Then I end up not finishing that project because I have moved on to something else. It's like there are a million different ideas in my own brain, and if I don't get them down on paper (or at least in part on paper) then it feels like my head might explode with the pressure.
It certainly makes you understand how artists become so engrossed in their own work that they exclude all other aspects of life.
If I am perfectly honest, I started thinking about this when I watched an episode of Desperate Housewives, a couple of weeks ago. (Yes, yes, it's trash I know, but I don't watch TOO many trashy shows, and everyone has to have a vice or two, right?!) Anyway, I was watching this episode where one of the main characters who has dabbled in art becomes an instant 'artist success story'. She paints some pictures to help alleviate her guilt over something her and some friends did, and her art teacher LOVES them and they are exhibited in a popular gallery to rave reviews. She is presented in the show for the most part as a little odd and eccentric - not quite normal. And she mentions to her art teacher that her paintings made her miserable. That she needed to get them out but she didn't want anyone to see them and therefore now that people had seen them and loved them she is miserable. He replies that this makes her a true artist. He says that a true artist needs to be miserable and exclude all other aspects of life in order to fully immerse themselves in their art.
This is what got me thinking about the stereotypes and wondering if that was actually true? I love my art, and I know I wouldn't be who I am without it. I love learning and I think that no matter where you are in life, you can ALWAYS learn something new. You should never get to the point where you think you know it all because how boring would life be if you knew everything and had nothing left to discover? But despite knowing that art is a part of my makeup, I also know that I couldn't exclude everything else in my life for it. I would become one of those 'crazy' artists who can't function in normal society. I need the reality of life to balance out the crazy, in effect.
But back to my original suggestion that one or other of the types of art isn't the be all and end all of who you are. I have this crazy idea that I need to write a book. I actually wrote one once, and I'd love to get it published at some point. Just a childrens book called Sally The Seahorse. It tells the story of a little seahorse who's a little different to the other seahorses and who just wants to have friends. I illustrated it as well, and I still love my little story. But lately I have had these random passages of text popping into my head, and I am feeling the beginnings of a story floating around in my brain. And maybe I will actually get around to writing something. Or maybe that drawing, or painting, or sculpture, or poem might take over first, hehehe.
In the end, I guess all the bits of creativity that are floating around in the tangled mess that sometimes is my brain, can only compliment each other. Writing a story, or a poem, might inspire an awesome painting...or that drawing that seemingly came out of nowhere might end up being a new bestseller!!