Sometimes my students ask me who can paint as many occasions do not know where to start, I always recommend take a camera with them when they go for a walk or vacation as the places they visit and the things that see like are the best photos for a new painting.
On the other hand, it is important to look at magazines, flyers, visit art museums or check the internet where you could find many ideas that always serve as reference for beginning a painting. As yet we do not know that painting is a great idea to take along a journal that serve us every day to write whatever we like, such as a colourful sky, a cloudy day, a tree, a kids playing on the beach, a puppy eating ice cream or a cat cleaning her babies.
If you write in a journal your ideas is very easy to remember that when you want to start a new painting. I recommend that in addition to looking at all print media is important to do a collage in your journal that is going to be your reference for your new painting.
The most important thing is enjoy what you paint and if you feel tired from your painting you must change for another painting for keep your enthusiasm in your art.
When I teach in my classes I use art therapy with my students and allow them to change their techniques from drawing to use mono-printer or stamping, so they do not get bored with the routine of their painting. However, enjoy your journal and use your camera all time.
Say that all changes are good, I think so ... but sometimes we are a little scared and do not wish to take that big step to change and become better, for exemplar changing school, friends, work, country or even painting technique, we often hesitate and try to keep painting the same way without a changing our technique, colours or media. This happened to me when I was doing my certification in fine art at Emily Carr University, I studied advance acrylic and my teacher besides being an artist showed that the acrylic can be painted as oil and blending and also combining with ground leaves, sawdust, petroleum jelly, gesso, transparent gel or just sand. I thought she was one of those artists who sought to explain her abstract technique with lines and spots painted by hand but my surprise was greater when I combined the new techniques with my own style that I have always painted during years. Through the combination of acrylic and oil I express some of my imagination that had been left behind because I was thinking it was only fantasy. Every day I learned something new and with the changes I made a new style in my art, I've grown and learned that I must change to survive in a world that moves so quickly and when I studied it taught me to grow as an artist and transmit such knowledge.
What is the difference between reality and imagination?
Artists do not know the difference between these two words as long as we paint our reality through the imagination and abstract. I remember when I was kid, I liked the story of Alice in the wonderland where that crazy and mysterious cat appeared and disappeared, I remember always drawing it but I never imagine how it could really be until I grew up and saw the second movie with real people, let me tell you that I'm fascinated with the cat and the mad hatter... the colors and extravagance of the movie made my imagination grow. After seeing the movie I started to design a masterpiece that had a touch fantasy and reality, where I could paint my cartoons as a child and enjoy thinking about how pink the cat could be in real life. This is the result of my mind that travels between the fantasy of my imagination and the reality that distinguishes me as an artist. Enjoy.
