This week, I have enjoyed looking back at a few favourite paintings from my archives, as I continue to work on developing my style.
Having devoted a lot of my creative time on sketchbooking in recent weeks, I am returning my focus to painting and my quest to develop a loose and exciting style – this is proving to be quite an ongoing challenge!
The reason I have reflected upon some of my previous favourite paintings, is because I am aware my style has become much too loose and sketchy, and felt I needed to recalibrate it back a few notches.
Sketching: During the past year or so, I have very much enjoyed sketching outdoors from life, and have discovered that this discipline has enabled me to improve my observational skills as well as loosen up my style. The ongoing experience has has also enabled me to capture scenes much more rapidly.
Painting: Prior to my recent focus on sketching, I had been quite pleased with how my painting style had been developing; again, much looser and impressionistic than I’d ever achieved previously – but not enough attention to maintaining acceptable and consistent perspective. Also, although I could see I was (pleasingly) heading in the direction of artists I admired, I felt I was just destined to be one of many thousand other similar artists – I really want to achieve something different and exciting!
Mixed media: I really do not like this description, I’m seeking a different name for it… Meanwhile though, I am very excited about the work of a few artists producing some very vibrant, if perhaps slightly ‘naive’ in style, works which I find stimulating. I have spent a good deal of time examining and practicing their techniques. I’ve purchased a wide range of new materials including charcoal, acrylic inks, pastel pencils, and explored creating work in a similar style – but in ‘my own voice’. This proved to be both interesting and frustrating.
New avenue? The mixed media experiment has resulted in a positive outcome, though – as I am now embarking on a hybrid approach to combine where I am currently with painting and also higher-quality sketching, in mixed media. I just need to continue developing the two – but combined upon the same support – to see if I can pull it off!
