Seasonal Inspiration
As artists, our quest for inspiration is often a crazy journey of self discovery. The enigmatic force of "inspiration" is a wild and unpredictable companion. One minute you’re on fire, the next you’re scratching your head! It’s a never ending roller coaster!
A landscape Love Affair
For me, I always turn to the landscape. I never tire of it’s shifting colours, organic textures and dramatic change of light. This unpredictability really connects to a deep part of me that loves to feel alive and is always open for change. Every field, mountain range, meadow and coast offers a new opportunity for fresh encounter!
Painting Day on Ideford Common
‘When you go out to paint and things become spots of colour and you’re no longer making a house a house or a tree a tree, you have your painter’s eye with you”
Charles Hawthorne in ‘Hawthorne on Painting’
Shapes, Texture and Colour
So what do I look for when I’m out on location? I’ll walk around until I get a real sense of the place. Then things will start to catch my eye. These could be craggy rocks, architectural plants, burnt trees, dark clouds. Anything that gives a real sense of interest and drama to a place. I need to see strong shapes that I instantly feel would be exciting to paint and are also reflective of that place.
At the moment i’m being inspired by the dried flowers all along the hedgerows. They create incredible sculptural silhouettes that are bold, yet equally delicate. I’m constantly screeching to a halt in my car to peak into a field of wheat or flowers!
Mixing up your Materials
Once I feel a connection to the place then i’ll begin to paint. I try to capture these forms really quickly so that I infuse them with a sense of movement and energy.
For BIG BOLD shapes I like to use a dark tone, in a thick paint. Quite often i’ll pre mix a bottle of dark brown or deep blue acrylic. By having just one heavier paint pre-mixed, i’m not carrying around all the other tubes of colour! This thicker paint acts as a great contrast to the soft, translucent layers of ink. I always use the inks to suggest the much softer elements, such as distant fields or sky. This combination of materials creates a really exciting mix of possibilities.
Capturing The Moment
If you’ve been following me on my Instagram profile you’ll have seen my EUREKA moment when I realised I needed to start creating my larger scale paintings actually on location. This has become so fundamental to capturing the essence of a place. I’m going to create another blog on that later, but I think you can see the link between what i’m capturing in the moment, and how that feeds into the finished work.
You don’t need to be creating large paintings to do this! You just need to prepare some surfaces before you leave and just see what happens!
New Mid Summer Collection Coming Soon!…
I know I started this blog talking about the challenge of searching for inspiration, but I want to end by saying…
How lucky are we to live a life where we are constantly on the search for it! That journey of discovery. The ability to channel what we love through our creativity is a privilege and a joy.
My hedgerow inspiration is evolving to become a beautiful collection of mixed media paintings. Every piece is a unique moment captured in paint forever.
It’s an honour to be showcasing them to you soon!
If you’d like to be on my mailing list to see the preview of the collection please SUBSCRIBE below.
Love sam
x
xx