As an artist, I’m constantly inspired by the things I see, places I go and things I read. I often find that these inspirations change with the seasons. As we enter the early stages of summer (although it doesn’t feel like it!) I find I’m drawn to spending time in the garden, observing the flowers as they begin to bloom, reading summer novels and taking a walk down the beach. I want to paint summery things like summer fruits, sea shells, make hair scrunchies for beach days and just embrace that wonderful summer feeling within my work.
Summer is often the season I feel most inspired and I wanted to share 3 of the things that are currently inspiring not only my artwork but my life in general.
1. My garden
Last year, my partner and I were lucky enough to buy our first home together. I was so excited about finally having our own garden! It was an overgrown mess when we bought the house but over the last few months, we’ve been slowly clearing away the brambles and planting some beautiful plants.
I’ve always known that I enjoy being out in the garden but I never realised, until I had my own garden, just how much I would love gardening. I actually descend from a long line of gardeners so it’s no surprise really that I enjoy it. As an artist though, I’m also drawn to gardening because I can closely observe nature in action, nurture it and reap the rewards by painting what I’ve helped to grow.
2. Fine liner pens
For some reason, once I finished my degree 7 years ago, I stopped using fine liners. It was actually my favourite way of drawing while I was studying but for some reason when I left and started my business, I only used pencils and watercolour to create my art.
Recently though, I sat down with my sketchbook and decided to just play around with them again. I started with a few simple flower drawings, before moving on to other things. I drew the seal in my previous blog post and I also used them to add detail to a quick painting of Durdle Door beach. I have definitely rekindled my love for fine liners over the last few months and I will be continuing to explore using them in more art pieces.
3. Reducing my time on social media
I was contemplating ranking this as number 1as this is currently inspiring my more than anything. Over the last few months and more so in the last few weeks, I’ve found myself moving further and further away from social media particularly Instagram and spending more time reading, walking and dreaming up new ideas for my art.
As an artist, in the past I spent a lot of time on the app promoting my art, engaging with my followers and scrolling through an endless feed. At first, I was seeing some benefit to my effort and time but more recently, I feel the time I spend on there is time could be put to better use. It could be spent painting more or writing blog posts like this one, things that won’t just get forgotten in 30 seconds.
As well as having more free time, I’m finding it inspiring in the fact that I’m not comparing my art to others as much and I’m not constantly being bombarded by art and imagery. I can focus on present moments and be inspired by one thing at a time instead.
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