My style of painting has to do with feeling, emotion. It’s about capturing that magical moment when the truth and sheer beauty of nature takes your breath away. You know, I think as artists we’ve all experienced it. You walk through a garden, your eye is caught by a flicker of light, and you see, for a moment, an enchanting glow as light dances across the surface of a petal or shines luminously through a leaf. And you know that you have to translate that joy into your work.
Have you ever looked at a dewdrop as it emits shards of brilliant refracted light? As it is precariously suspended on a petal, the slightest breeze will lift the curtain on the play, and in your mind you can picture the events that follow. Capturing this moment will bring movement and energy, expectation and life to your painting. I like to zoom in, through the bee’s eye, and bring viewers of my work right into the character of my subject: I want them to “know” my subject.
I try to take this feeling, this unfolding story, and with it, bring the viewer of my painting into that world, my world, the world within the frame. To do this, I suggest that you analyze what it is that has you spellbound about your theme. Ask yourself: is the shimmering light, the refracted shards, perhaps the angle the dewdrop is at? This indicates that the breeze has caused the stem to sway gently and the dewdrop to rattle. It’s all of these things, and the best way to emphasize this is to get up close and personal.
It’s second nature to me and I decided that if I wanted to grow as an artist, I had to learn to analyze what I do and why.
We never stop learning and that is what is so rewarding about painting. It is a journey that always takes us down new paths, revealing new directions. We should never be afraid to take these paths and experiment. Keep an open mind, try new things. Decide what is the very essence of ‘us’. Now that’s what we have to paint. Paint what moves you, and you will feel complete and it will show in your work.
Believe in yourself and paint from your soul. Paint the subjects that you are passionate about. With this combination you will discover that you are not only sharing a part of yourself with others, but that you are provoking emotions in the viewers of your work. It is this that people remember, not the skill with which you have painted something, nor the precision with which you use the brush. No, it’s the way your vision stepped out of the painting and captured their emotions, allowing them to be sucked in and bewitched by that moment you’ve suspended in time.
