Art making ideasi
Ideas. Inspiration. A little creative mischief.
If you’re drawn to abstract and semi-abstract art, sketchbooks, colour and a little creative mischief, this is your corner of the internet.
Here you’ll find stories, videos, inspiration, art making advice and gentle nudges to help you create art that feels exciting to you.
Love of Pattern
This is a love letter to pattern. Take my patterned sketchbook tour and see some art books to inspire…
My love of decoration, ornament and pattern has been a life-long love affair.
All of my very earliest childhood memories involve pattern in some way..,the wallpaper in my infant bedroom, the pattern of a dress, a carpet, a bedspread, a plate, the decoration on our neighbour’s biscuit tin when I was only three or four. I see and remember the world via pattern.
The art we make reflects who we are back to us, doesn’t it?. It can be a projection, an extension of who we are, a culmination of our experiences, our sensibilities, our curiosities, our feelings…. And my art definitely celebrates a love of pattern.
Humans are pattern makers
I think perhaps patten also has an instinctual universal appeal too. Humans are pattern makers and pattern seekers. From the earliest times we have added ornament, decoration, motifs and marks to the items in our world, we turn the ordinary into the extraordinary through making our mark on the world. .We have always added pattern, ornamentation, decoration and detail to the items in our lives to make our lives more beautiful.
Humans are pattern seekers
We seek patterns as a way to understand the world.. there is comfort, familiarity and understanding in repetition and repeats…and at it’s most basic form that’s exactly what a pattern is. It’s a shape, a motif, a mark… repeated.
I seem to agree with the saying that ‘repetition makes perfect’…
Books and links
Here are the books I share in the video.
Terry Winters. Paintings, Drawings, Prints 1994–2004 Hardcover, 2005 by Richard Shiff (Author), Rachel Teagle (Author) Published by Yale University Press.
This book is now out of print but you can see more of Terry Winter’s art on his website here
Matisse in the Studio Hardcover – 6 April 2017 by Ellen McBreen (Author) et al, Royal Academy of the Arts
Art making manifesto
A little of what I believe to be true about about art making…
It is useful to think about what we believe when it comes to our own art making.
I wanted to summarise my personal beliefs and be clear about my own philosophy and wisdom. Things about art which I know to be true, the guiding principles behind my practice.
So here it is. My art making manifesto. A set of beliefs in a few short words, but also a set of intentions. A small reminder, a note to myself and perhaps others. A written set of ideas to guide, remind and direct me… my north star of art making.
This is what I believe, you may not agree…
I think it is a useful exercise to document what we believe to be true for ourselves. Define our own wisdom.. Perhaps you may like to try and write your own manifesto and guiding principles.. Just thinking about what we do actually believe to me true can be enlightening.
MAKE MORE ART
The more art we make the better our art becomes. The more art we make the more likely we are to develop skills and ideas. The more art we make the more confident we become in our decisions. The more art we make the better we are able to spot patterns, connections and themes. The more art we make the better we are able to identify reoccurring pre-occupations and fascinations.
SKETCHBOOKS ARE MAGIC
Sketchbooks are a great place to try things out and explore. They are a place to ponder, wonder and play. A place to safely gather together the hints, whispers and clues of an artistic practice. A place to collect and curate small corners and large curiosities, a place to develop skills and processes.
EVERYONE’S AN ARTIST
I believe everyone’s an artist, it’s a natural human instinct to interpret and understand ourselves and the world through creating. Art-making is a skill, developed by practice and not an innate talent which we either have of don’t have.
DEVELOP THROUGH DOING
The idea of art being a ‘practice’ is right, we do indeed have to practice. It is in the action that we discover ways of making art which feel right, that we discover ourselves as artists.
EXPERIMENTATION EQUALS DISCOVERY
I find that the more I experiment the more I am likely to discover things about my own art and the things that excite and interest me. I find it valuable to try things and then reflect on the signposts and signals I find within those experiments….
BE MORE WEIRD
It’s our particular visual quirks and sensibilities, our own peculiar weirdnesses that make our art feel uniquely ours. We should lean into these, whether it be subject matter, process, colour, the way we mix or apply materials. Our weird bits can be our interesting bits, they are part of our artistic voice and style.
INSPIRATION IS EVERYWHERE
Inspiration is everywhere and making art helps us to seek and find what we are personally interested in. Creating art helps me to see the world with new and curious eyes, it brings more wonder and awe into my life. I notice more, pay more attention to details and become more fascinated by random and unexpected beauty in the world around me.
PROCESS OVER PERFECTION
This one is the art making equivalent of “it’s the journey, not the destination.” As artists we all need to develop a selection of processes and methods which feel good, enjoyable and which match our own interests and sensibilities.
DELIGHT YOURSELF FIRST
Rather than think, “Will people like what I’ve made?” perhaps a more useful question is “Am I making art that I truly love?”
Our art is an expression of who we are…
Thoughts on developing our art style…
Music used in video: Softly to Myself by Kylie Dailey
In this video and blog I share some thoughts on developing an art style which feels personal and particular to you.
Our art is an expression of who we are…
Our art is such a personal expression of who we are, our experiences, our fascinations and our curiosities.
In my tutorials and content I am conscious and careful that I don’t want to teach anyone how to make art that looks like mine; I want to encourage, cheerlead and share advice about how to make art that feels and looks wondrously and uniquely yours...
The art we make is an extension of who we are and what we are interested in, so it needs to feel like it belongs to us, that it came from our hand and our heart.
And I think that is what developing our art style is all about, it’s about ensuring our art feels like we’ve made it, it’s about making art which feels completely ours, an expression of us, a reflection of who we are and what we are fascinated and curious about. .
Make lots of art
I frequently get asked about how I developed my style of art and how others should develop theirs. I believe the way to develop your style is to make a lot of art, average art, beautiful art, any art…we have to try things out, experiment, not know where it is taking us…
Seek signposts
It is only when you have made a significant amount of work, become more comfortable in your skills and tried numerous approaches that you can look back through it and see what it is signalling to you. The art you make contains important signposts to your style.
Get inquisitive
Look at a selection of art you have made and get inquisitive and question yourself:
What aspects do I particularly relish?
What appeal to me?
What speaks to me within my own art?
What do I enjoy making?
How do I enjoy making it?
What kind of marks do I relish using?
How does my art feel?
How would I describe my art?
Ask questions about your own art and listen to your answers they contain powerful clues.
Follow the clues
Think about your art, the subject matter, the technique, the materials, the colours, the marks, the feeling that it stirs, paying attention to what we are drawn to in our own art is the key to creating distinctive, personal art that feels like it is ours.
Evolving and changing
Our art style is an ongoing conversation with ourselves, an expression and voice for who we are and what we are interested in. Our art style is not a fixed thing, which we arrive at and never depart from. The way we make art is us sharing our point of view, our opinion, interpreting the world and our place in it…and as such elements of our style will change and evolve and elements will remain constant. I’ve been making art for twenty years now and my style feels to me as if it is in constant slow motion, it changes and evolves and takes on new iterations and elements and sometimes it circles back to themes and ideas…
In one sentence…
To develop our art style we have to make lots of art, reflect on the art we have made, get curious about the aspects of it that light us up and do more of that. It’s a continual process of taking note of what we love within our own creations and doing more of it…
How to make a simple sketchbook
Learn how to make a simple concertina book which can be turned into a more regular sketchbook with a little glue…
In this video I show you how to make a simple sketchbook from one large piece of paper. The bigger sketchbook in the video is made from an A1 sheet and the smaller one is made from an A3 sheet.
I make these simple one page sketchbooks very frequently and have for many years. There is something extremely tactile and pleasing about making a simple art book. I like the fact that it’s just one piece of paper, no pressure, no expectations, it feels expansive and freeing.
The great thing is that you can make them from any paper you have that you can fold and you can make them from abandoned art experiments or drawings if you’d like to…. in the video I am using paper which is approximately 150gsm in weight.
Art and life: sketchbooks, paintings and art books
Tracing how my sketchbooks influence my paintings and sharing some favourite art books…
In this video I show you some new completed paintings and trace their origin back to some old sketchbook pages. I share a couple of my favourite art books, talk a little about art and life and share some of my latest sketchbook meanderings…
The artists and books I mention:
Angie Lewin: Plants and Places by Angie Lewin, published by Merrell 2010
Barbara Rae: Barbara Rae, words by Bill Hare, Andrew Lambirth & Gareth Wardell, published by Lund Humphries in 2008
Available paintings
Online art classes
Searching for joy and delight
A tour through my mixed media sketchbook and a speedy art demo using Indian ink
Music Credit: Supine by Peter Sandberg via Epidemic Sound.
In this video I take you inside my mixed media sketchbook and share a speedy art demonstration experimenting with ink…
I often write notes to myself about my art, things I want to explore, things to remember, ideas to expand upon, fragments and whispers I want to capture.
Sometimes I list the things I want to do more of or the things I want do less of…
I’ve always found writing to be a useful way to think…by pouring words onto a page, I organise and clarify my thoughts and bring light to what I believe.
Joyful abandon
Recently a phrase has repeated itself in my notes and thoughts in terms of how I want my art to feel. “Joyful abandon.” has appeared twice in my notes… I only noticed it when I read back through them. And then I noticed I’d written it not once, but twice, on different days…in the same week. A subconscious thought made visible.
And what did I mean? I think I meant I want joy and delight to be the things I seek in my art making, my north star…
In this season of my life I want to lean-in to what I find and feel to be joyful…and perhaps abandon the things that don’t support this. There is something unapologetic, exuberant and enthusiastic about the concept of ‘joyful abandon’ that resonates with me. A lack of inhibition and constraint that feels expansive.
When there is so much darkness and difficulty in the world, it may perhaps sound naive of me to be seeking joy. The last few years have been a little challenging for me, I have struggled with some ongoing health issues and various other challenges, and it is exactly this difficulty that has made me more attuned to joy, more keen to seek it out, to celebrate it and appreciate it….
Seek what you value in your art
Creating art isn’t always easy, there will often be problems to solve, fallow seasons, perhaps times when it feels more challenging than others, sometimes art making will feel vulnerable and exposing, we will often get in our own way, but making a decision to seek out what you value the most and do less of the things that don’t serve this seems like a good ambition to me…