Artists are often asked where they get their inspriration from. Where do I get my inspiration from? The simple answer from me is EVERYWHERE! Inspiration is all around around us every day, we just have to learn to “see” it.
One of my sources of inspiration is my photo archive. I have been a keen digital photographer for well over 20 years and have accumulated hundreds upon hundreds of photos. I’ve been steadily getting prints made which I have then put into A4 sketchbooks, two of which you can see here. The prints in these books are 7″ x 5″ glossy prints. The mussels photo you might recognize as the one on the front page of my website.
My paintings don’t have to be direct copies of my photos necessarily – I can just use specific elements from a photo or combine elements from several photos to create a painting. It might be the colours in a photo that inspire me or perhaps a photo might bring back memories of a place or time that I would like to capture in a painting. It might simply be the subject matter of the photo that inspires me. My photos inspire me in many different ways.
To capture inspiration anywhere, anytime I always carry a camera with me everywhere! Take a look at the photo below…
The watercolour samples above are among the very earliest watercolour experiments I ever did! I still have them – they are now glued into an old sketchbook with some other early colour and art experiments. Beautiful blue shades – Prussian Blue, Indigo, Cerulean Blue along with Phthalo Turquoise, Lemon Yellow, Payne’s Grey, Sap Green and Burnt Umber – all by Winsor & Newton. I treasure these beautiful little pieces of my art journey.
Where will you find inspiration today?
INDIGO BEACH ART 