Into the Vortex: Swirling with Nature's Chaos in My Art
I detested this piece, but looking back, it taught me a lot!
This is a little overdue, its also a little confession so here we go! Sometimes, stepping into my studio feels like entering a rut. The same brushes reach for the same familiar colours, the canvas already breathes the same landscapes I've already attempted, and the wildlife seems content to pose in their usual predictable corners. Don't get me wrong, there's comfort in that predictability, a quiet satisfaction in mastering a technique or subject (did someone say master?). But before, that comfort had started to feel like stagnation, the edges of my creativity blunted by routine. And you do not want to feel that! I’ve touched on it before with a previous blog post here.
Throwing Caution to the wind
Another happy accident, what even is it!?
So, I'm throwing caution (and possibly a few tubes of paint) to the wind and declaring an artistic war. This is for the messy, the unexpected, the experimental leap into the unknown. It's about embracing the terror of a blank canvas! Misbehaving with mediums, some which need practice themselves. Embracing that wrong mark! And just letting it exist!
Firstly, perspective. The carefully mapped out horizons, picture perfect sunsets? Stunning Landscape Paintings? Careful contemporary wildlife Paintings? Gone. Instead, I'm squinting through kaleidoscopes, painting art upside down, inside out (not literally). Suddenly, a fox leaps off the canvas, mid-pounce, as if on a pogo stick. A family of birds, sit cheerfully on a branch of a tree, close-by, a fledgling flaps its wings as if to take to the sky like a helicopter. For Landscapes and Wildlife look similar in our eyes, its up to us, as artists, to change that perspective.
Complementary colours are always opposite. Green to Red, Blue to Orange.
Image: discover.hubpages.com
Secondly, Colour! Yes, sitting mixing and mixing and mixing to find that right… Blast, I lost it. Was it more Cadmium Red, or Alizarin Crimson? What even is the difference? So, well… So-be-it. Gone too, are those safe earthy colours of the land, those glittering yellows and oranges of the sand. In comes neon colours, crazy pinks, oozing blues into vivid fiery reds, really pushing those complementary colours. That is one of the greatest points of making your own art - and its that it can be anything you want, Golden Rhino, yea! Bright blue Swan, why not!?
What of the what-ifs
The results? Well, they're not always the way they are supposed to be! Some creative experiments explode in a mess of failed ideas and paint-splattered walls (I have actually done this, plenty of times!) The sinking feeling that I've lost my mind, and, if I am brutally honest, getting rather angry and frustrated about it. But here's the thing: even the failures are fun, its creative, its chaos, its abstract! And even if it all goes up in flames, at least we'll have a hell of a story to tell (and probably some interesting abstract art for the living room). They remind me that art isn't always about the finished product, it's about the journey, the dance with uncertainty. And I can not dance for the life of me!
I'd love to hear about your own artistic chaos! Share your experiments, your failures, and your triumphs in the comments below. Let's inspire each other to keep pushing the boundaries and painting the impossible.
