On the subject of art....

I'm just wondering why we choose certain things to paint, draw or make.

Is it things we love? Things we feel passionate about? Things that excite us or we want to make a statement about. Is it to shock people or make people fall in love with an image?

I'm wondering this because in tutorials I am asked why I have chosen, basically flowers, or plants that I then abstract, but you can still see that they are plants really.

I was surprised when my tutor pointed out that even when abstracted there is a theme or reoccurring motif in all of my paintings, of seed heads for example. Interestingly I hadn't really realised this at all!

How can it be so difficult to articulate why I choose a painting subject. I wonder if it's because when things are so personal you leave yourself open to criticism of the heart. I shall therefore attempt to answer it here and hope that I come up with the answer!!

It's true that when I paint at home I look for something that is on hand and small enough for me to access. This ends up being in the form of plants or flowers usually.

The summer found me doing seascapes and beach paintings, because I was there.

But is it just that I paint things that are handy or of where I am because actually when I am at home it would be just as easy to paint a chair or window, but I don't.

Peter (a fantastic teacher who can insightfully see things that I don't realise are even obvious) asked me about where I go, what I think of when I choose my subject matter. I thought about summer and going into fields to pick blackberries where I then sat in amongst the overgrowth to paint and then later collect branches and objects to take home to paint.

This was something that I actively went out to find to paint. It wasn't easy or comfortable sitting in the grasses, I felt hidden but vulnerable as it was quite lonely. But I sought it out for it's hidden beauty and the way it made me feel. It makes me feel the way that painting makes me feel, like an out of body experience, that I'm in a trance almost and incredibly happy.

I wonder if there is something about the shapes of the objects that I paint. Peter called them fluid and lyrical. I think that in someways they can be safe and moved about to still look ok and still in a type of perspective of sorts. Perhaps they are safe from criticism because does a house have to look like a house? Does a apple have to look like an apple?

Not really when I think about it. At the Laing Art Gallery I enjoyed Frank Auerbach's Morning Sunrise painting which only alluded to buildings. It was his view that he was interested in.

I think it's alright to find a thing that interests you and to then make it into art. You see this all around the studios at University. Animals, portraits, textures, textiles.

For me my art needs to have colour, texture of paint, fluid shapes and movement.

My challenge is to move away from the obvious and perhaps even from my inspirations. Perhaps it is to concentrate on the colours and movement of the paint and to see what happens then.

Let's see where being out of my comfort zone takes us.

Image: my studio with work in progress.