Evolution of Painting

I've been creating art for as long as I can remember. When I was younger, my go-to subject was people, and my medium was cheap markers on computer paper. As I got older, I was exposed to different styles of art, different ways of creating art, the history of art, anything art-related, I wanted to know more about. The more I learned, the more my love for art grew. 

Fast forward to college. I began to discover my own "style." And that style involved painting with EVERY. SINGLE. COLOR. The colors I painted with can be described as "out of the tube" meaning, little to no mixing was involved, very, basic, primary colors. My brush strokes were hard and distinct, yet at the same time, organic and curvy.

My favorite art classes in college were those that focused on figure drawing. Models would pose for us as we learned about the human form. Learning about the bones and muscles that created the body inspired me to explore my own paintings of the human figure, outside of class. I painted figures up close, faraway, nude, not nude. All the while using a shit ton of color….and I mean a LOT.

After college, I moved to California and started to draw inspiration from the palm trees, the ocean, and the warm weather. My color palette started to lean towards more natural hues. I didn't know a soul when I moved there, and spent a lot of time alone, experimenting with my artwork. I began to loosen up with my painting style. My brush strokes became a bit more loose, the lines and shapes of colors that used to be so distinct, became more painterly. My subject matter still focused on what I could physically see, for the most part that meant people. But I also became interested in plants, food, and other still life items.

A couple years later I found myself living in Colorado, and in awe of the mountains. Growing up, I had always considered myself a beach person, but after leaving California, I realized I didn't miss the ocean that much. The mountains were in my own backyard, and I was hooked. The natural path my art went, was of course then, landscapes. I had never done landscape painting before, and to be honest, was always super judgy about landscape art. I thought artwork of trees and oceans was the most boring thing in the world. I agreed with Ron Swanson when he said, "I think it's pointless for a human to paint scenes of nature when they can go outside and stand in it." But I ignored Ron, and took my new found love for the mountains, combined it with my love of color, and started to put my own spin on mountain landscape paintings. I revered back to those clear, hard painting lines I did so much of in college.

After creating a dozen or so mountain paintings, I took a step back and critiqued my work. I didn't have the help of professors or fellow artists to tell me what was good and bad, so I had to take a critical eye to my own work. I looked at all the paintings I had created. And when I did, they all appeared super flat to me. I didn't see lots of dimension and I was starting to grow tired of those hard, clear lines. Like I had learned to do in California, I let myself loosen up, and the landscape mountain paintings loosened up with me.

I realized something quickly, after living in a state filled with mountains for a little while. You see mountains EVERYWHERE. I don't just mean in your backyard. I mean on t-shirts, in art galleries, car stickers, on pint glasses at breweries, and so on. Anywhere someone can stick a picture of a mountain, it was there. As quick as my new found love for landscape painting arrived, with the over-saturation of mountain art, just like that, it was gone. 

Me and my mountains had a good run, no hard feelings, but I felt like it was time for something new. I had always loved abstract art, but never knew what the fuck I was doing when I tried to create my own abstract pieces. I was so sick of mountain paintings that trying something that I had no idea what I was doing was a much needed change of pace. When I started painting abstractly, none of my work really looked consistent. Sure, it had bright colors, and was kind of organic and round in nature, but when it came down to it, it was just fun for me. I wasn't trying to create a consistent body of work, I was just trying something new, I was experimenting. 

True to form, I got bored again. Maybe it was because I didn't have a clear idea of what I was doing in my head. Maybe I needed a new challenge. Maybe I was inspired by this super cool plant shop that I went into, that made me want to paint a bunch of plants....maybe all three and then some. But my next art adventure combined my old love of the human form, and new inspiration of plants.

After a good run with the figures and plants, I wanted to give abstracts another stab. This time, I wanted to be a little more consistent with my style of abstracts. I became more mindful of my color palette. Not using paint “straight from the tube.” Before even beginning a painting, I would choose a few colors, and stick to those. I was trying to break away from my old habits of painting with every single color of the rainbow. I also became more mindful of my brushstrokes. The abstracts I had first tried, were all over the place. It didn’t look like they were done by one artist. I wanted someone to look at these paintings, and know that they were created by one single person.What came out was super round, circle brush strokes.

After seeing that I was capable of creating abstracts that looked consistent, and was pretty decent at picking color palettes, I was hooked. All I wanted to create were abstract pieces. I became more aware of my surroundings, and the color palettes that surrounded me every day. I took photos of everything and anything that inspired me. Whether it was a composition, or colors that just seemed to work well together. I used these photos for inspiration in my paintings later. But nothing is ever quite as inspiring as traveling. There’s something that happens to me when I travel. my eyes are more open. I’m more aware. More appreciative of all the little things in life. I see things I might not normally see.

One trip in particular inspired a whole series of abstracts when I returned home from my trip. It was a trip to France that I got engaged on. I came back full of love, and bursting with inspiration. Everything about that trip inspired my next series of abstract paintings, especially the color palettes I was drawn to.I painted and painted, exploring colors and shapes and brush strokes. Painting felt fun again.

What happened after this new-found energy and inspiration was something not so great. A lull. I didn’t feel inspired for a looonnnggggg time. I looked at other artist’s work and felt defeated. I didn’t feel like my work was as good as others. I wasn’t seeing success like I thought I would by this point in my art career and just didn’t want to paint. I had no motivation. No ideas of what I should paint. And when I did try and create something, it just didn’t feel right.

Eventually I dove into other interests of mine that had been on the back burner, with art always at the forefront for so long. I reconnected to my love of food, astrology, journaling, reading, and really getting to know myself and other interests I had. When I was in high school, I would check out books from the library about astrology and pour over them. Mostly, I would see if my crushes and I were compatible, ha! My interest in astrology got something inside me stirring. I connected this old interest with painting. I diligently sought out the traits of each sign, not just my own, as I had selfishly done in high school. As I began to learn about each sign, I also studied the psychology of color. And with astrology and color knowledge I planned out paintings for each sign. I came up with color palettes for every astrological sign and why each color fit their description. Then, for the first time in a while, I began painting work that felt fun again. It was also a way for me to make the astrology information I was reading about stick.

After completing my astrology series I was distracted and consumed by wedding planning for months. I wanted everything to be perfect, to feel like Justin and I. To be beautiful and romantic, and for the vision in my head to come to life. So instead of working on art, I worked on wedding things. And on May 18, 2019, everything was as beautiful and perfect as I imagined. We got married in a super intimate ceremony in Italy, taking our honeymoon immediately after.

Once again, I was filled with love and inspiration from traveling. I mean, it’s Italy for crying out loud. Who wouldn’t be inspired?!? Mostly, I wanted to paint and draw our food. The beautiful bottles of wine, and bread, and classic Italian spread. The negronis, the olives, all of it! When we arrived home I funneled all this inspiration into the 100 day project. It was something I wanted to do for forever, but felt like such a big commitment. The premise was simple, create something every day for 100 days. So, I looked at all my beautiful photos of negroni’s and began to paint that. I took my sketchbook with me when having a glass of wine. I drew what was in front of me. I painted my memories of our honeymoon. I discovered still life painters that I became obsessed with and found inspiration in their work. It has been what felt like years since I painted a still life, and it felt great. I was connecting my memories of travel, getting married, enjoying amazing meals together, to my love of art.

Once the 100 day project was done, I patted myself on the back. I fucking did it! 100 days. 100 days I created something. Even if it was a little sketch of a flower, I still did it. Although I had started off with inspiration to paint still lifes during the 100 day project, I was drawn to abstracts once again, towards the end of the project. Because this project gave me the permission and freedom to create whatever I wanted, I did just that. I revisited old abstracts, created new ones, completely painted over paintings I wasn’t super into, and most important of all….had FUN.

At this point, more inspiring than travel, the 100 day project, my new marriage, and all of it combined, was the internal work I was doing throughout the year. I did a LOT of self-reflection, meditation, inner child work, journaling, and all the other things you can think of, led through Lacy Phillips work of To Be Magnetic.

It’s some of the hardest work I’ve done, but the most rewarding. I cannot recommend this work enough to people. One of the biggest things I learned while doing this work was to not care what people think. To be myself and as long as I’m not hurting anyone, to just not give a shit. It’s the advice we hear all the time growing up, but I really learned how to put my authentic self out into the world without fear. Once I began to do that, I created these paintings that felt like me. Truly me. I stopped comparing myself to other artists, and and accepted that yep, some artists are better than me. That’s ok!! The work I created was MY work and that’s it.

It’s nice to end 2019 with a look back. I’m so fucking pumped to see what kind of inspiration I find in 2020.