Still life is a genre of art that has been prevalent in the art world since the Middle Ages and the ancient Greco-Roman era. While styles may change with each era, the simplicity of the still life has carried it through the centuries.
But with a genre that has survived for so long, still life artists must be able to bring something new to each of their works. Within the simplicity of the genre lies the opportunity to create fresh and invigorating art.
Here are some ways contemporary still life artists can breathe most of their life into their still lifes…
Take your own perspective
Still life is the preservation of an object or image, capturing it and making it your own. No two people have the same experience when looking at an object. The viewer brings their own unique emotions and story to the experience.
When painting or drawing a still life, it is important that you do not lose what makes your experience when contemplating the object unique. If you’re painting sunflowers, for example, don’t just paint the sunflower, but the way you feel when you see the sunflower. You can do this in different ways, through color, brushwork, intensity, whatever method seems most appropriate to you.
In other words: trust your instincts. (This may seem obvious, but many artists can get caught up in a technique of overthinking.)
Find out the deeper meaning
When creating new work, choose a theme that has meaning to you or, barring that, imbue your theme with meaning of your own design.
You should aim to take your viewer where you go when you created your art. You want them to feel the feelings that you were feeling: sadness, hope, despair, whatever they are. You could be painting a still life from the bottle of wine you just finished, after saving for years since your wedding day. You must convey to your spectator the taste of the wine on your lips, the feeling of the bottle when you held it in your hand, and the memory of the wedding night, whether it be joy or sadness.
Whatever theme comes to mind, let him lead the effort to communicate its meaning to your viewers.
Always be you
If you take your life and your story and put it into your work, your art will always be unique. Two different apples drawn from two different people will look similar if all the artist draws is the apple, the skin, and the stem.
However, if the artists put their memories into the apples, through the tone, the layers, the colors they use, and the shadows, the apples will look different. The finished fruit will convey the artist’s experience with the apple, whether it is his favorite fruit or whether he thinks of the apple only as something destined to rot.
