blueBanksia art directory lists art short courses and events

By Jill Stefani Wagner

I recently returned to my first love-layering pigment on paper. But I was so wildly excited to be painting again that I simply couldn't focus. Every subject seemed worthy of capturing on paper. I painted landscapes, still life, portraits, and abstracts in watercolor, pastel, charcoal, acrylic and colored pencil. I flitted from subject to subject and from medium to medium with crazy abandon. It almost seemed that I had art attention deficit disorder.

Although I enjoyed creating again, I was vaguely dissatisfied with the process and the results. I had no individual style, nor a recognizable body of work. Every piece looked and felt completely different from the piece before it.

I spoke to my good friend and art mentor about my frustration. We discussed how individual artistic style takes years to achieve and often changes over the career of an artist. She cautioned that I couldn't expect it to come with out lots and lots of work. But she also had 3 very wise pieces of advice for me.

First, she asked me to decide which medium I felt most comfortable using. Which one helped me achieve my creative goals? That was a relatively easy response for me. Although I had always considered myself a water colorist, I had a newfound passion for pastel painting. My mentor suggested that I concentrate on that medium for a while and save the many others for a bit later in my career.

Her next suggestion really changed the way I practice my craft. She asked me to zero in on one single subject and then create many paintings of that subject. She said 20, 30, even 40 paintings may not be enough.

Focus, focus, focus. Let all the extraneous ideas and mediums fall to the wayside and ...focus.

And then, she simply said, "paint bigger." She told me that expanding my painting size would help my composition, my technique and my color sense.

I took her words to heart.

I had recently painted my first large pastel at 13 inches by 26 inches. It was an extreme close-up of stones in a riverbed. I decided that this "micro landscape" would be the new subject matter I would explore. I took photos of almost every riverbed in our county and cropped them closely, playing with the composition. Sometimes I added rocks or ripples, sometimes I subtracted them.

I painted Riverstone pastel landscapes, one after another. Each one was different from the preceding one and each forced me to work out new problems of placement or technique, color or form. They became almost abstract to me, devoid of meaning, just shape and hues on a 2-dimensional surface.

You would think that it would become boring, painting the same subject in the same size format and the same medium. But it wasn't at all. I looked forward to each one and always had the next one brewing in my mind. I've painted 25 Riverstones so far and 20 of them have sold through my galleries. I'm not sure I'm finished with them yet. There's probably 5 or 10 more in my future.

I feel that my work has improved immensely since I took on this exercise. My pastel paintings are much more confident, accomplished and unique than it was before I began to "focus." I don't feel so distracted when I begin to work on a piece. I have a concept and a goal in mind and I work steadfastly toward accomplishing them.

This first successful series has lead to others: one of historic houses in our town, another of flowers, and most recently, a series of extreme close-ups of trees. All have sold well.

Will I continue to paint this way? I don't really know. I may grow out of this exercise or I may expand and perfect it. But for the time being, it has given me an interesting and explorative way to structure my creativity. And to make money doing it!

Jill Stefani Wagner is a professional watercolor and pastel artist who loves layering pigment on paper. Her website at http://www.JillWagnerArt.com highlights some of her recent work. You can also visit her art blog to view daily watercolor and pastel paintings for sale.

Article Source: EzineArticles.com