So last year when I was at Lake Country Art Walk for the first time I learned that I had a style. How - everyone commented on my 'style'. It was thrilling.
Every artist wants to have a recognizable style of their own and it's a bit of a mystery how you get one. Well it seems that it comes from doing a lot of painting. As you get along in your life as an artist you develop certain tendencies - colours you choose, the way you apply the paint, the way you render subjects in your painting etc. All that becomes your style. Now my theory is that it also has to do with inspiration. Over time you start to become aware of what subjects motivate you most to paint - what inspires you. That is also part of the style thing I believe because it also influences what and how you paint. Recently a friend of mine asked me to talk to his daughter about producing her portfolio for art school. I myself haven't gone to art school so I directed her to some good websites for the technicalities of the issue. As it turned out she just didn't know what to paint or draw. She clearly hasn't quite figured out what motivates her and how she wants to express herself. The advice - look at other art, look at pictures of stuff. I found by looking at other artist's work I was drawn to some paintings more than others. When you do that you start to see what makes your heart skip a beat and most likely it is what will motivate you. Then you analyze what all these photos and paintings have in common - or at least what the themes are. From that you get a better picture of what pulls you in and then you go try to paint something like it. As you attempt to create similar flow or colour scheme etc you find your own 'vocabulary' to express yourself and voila STYLE. It might not work that way for every one, but that's how it worked out for me. I'm still not happy with where I am and often I can't quite get the illusion I wanted to create but with every piece I learn something and get a bit closer to the holy grail. At least I hope so :). Hopefully this will help someone else out there find their illusive style.
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RamonaSelf taught artist and lover of all things beautiful Archives
March 2021
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