Saturday 24 May 2014

Uncomfortable Conscience - 23.05.2014

A couple of days ago I was talking to someone about nature and I realised how disgusting London actually is. I always thought that it was a beautiful city with a lot of parks and with a lot of trees, but it actually isn't.
I was walking home after choir last Friday and I thought I'd check how long I have to walk for before I see a tree.. and it was 20 minutes!  I was really surprised.. I thought we had more trees than that.. but I guess that because there aren't so many of them we notice them more than we would have if there were more of them. 

I love nature and I'm really surprised how blind I was for all those years.... I mean, you don't really get to see stars in the sky due to light pollution... I knew that was the case because whenever I went to Poland the sky looked so much nicer there.. but I didn't actually think about it...

We live in a world where money is the only thing that matters... Dreams don't matter anymore.. those who dream are regarded as immature and crazy.. but what's the point of living if you have no dreams? For money...? Are you going to buy yourself some happiness? Are you going to go to a shop and buy a family? a dream? love...? no. What are you going to do with all the money you're earning? 

Dreams are like trees. They keep us alive. We should treasure them and keep them alive.

Being successful today means having a well paid job and no time for life. If that's what it is, then screw it. I don't want to be successful anymore. I'd rather be happy, fulfilled and ''crazy''

Some people think they can earn some money now and then be happy later when they're finally able to follow their dreams.. but what if you die next year? or next month? or tomorrow? You would have lived a life without actually being alive for a single day.

People are so blinded by money that they don't notice the problems we face everyday. We're killing animals... all the time.. due to pollution. And nobody seems to care... People don't talk to eachother anymore.. it's all become virtual.. some people prefer their virtual lives to their real ones... they can be whoever they want online.. but why can't they be whoever they want in real life? It doesn't take that much to face your fears, leave your comfort zone, change your personality.. Your friends need you. A conversation online is not the same as a real conversation. Some people are unable to talk to other if they're face to face. Talking online is easier, alright, but it shouldn't be a substitute for a real conversation. I hate it when I see couples who are supposedly together, but they actually aren't because they're constantly on their phones while they're with one another, living their second lives..

People used to live peacefully, surrounded by nature and now people try to destroy it because they can't generate an income out of a tree, so it's better to build an ice cream shop in a park and get some money out of it than it is to plant more trees there.. 

I feel sorry for future generations... some kids will never see a real tree... there's this thing called global warming and everyone's panicking about it, but not many people actually do anything about it. Money money money.


...

ah... okay. so there is no new painting for this weeks entry, because I'm really busy recently. Yesterday I really wanted to paint something but I only had one hour so I decided to try something new. I took a piece of A4 paper, some black acrylic paint and set myself a challenge. I was supposed to paint a picture using just one colour and water. This means that I had to plan it out carefully in my mind because I wouldn't be able to fix it with white paint like I usually do :D

It looks a bit like an ink drawing but it was done using acrylic paint (Mars Black) from....... Winsor and Newton as always haha  :)


Here's the outcome of my exercise:


It's not really a proper painting, but it has a name nonetheless haha :)
It's called ''Uncomfortable Conscience''  



Lost of Love,
Marlena

Sunday 18 May 2014

Peace after War - 22.12.2012

''No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.'' 
 Oscar Wilde

...



A strange thing occurred to me today - I never get an inspiration for a new painting while I'm wearing my glasses.
I'm short sighted and my eyes are actually pretty bad; everything that's more than 50cm away from is blurry, even my reflection in the mirror.
So without my glasses everything is a blur. All I see is colours of the things in front of me, no edges, just a mixture of colours. 
And that's when I get my inspiration... 
Some blurry shape in front of me changes and turns into something completely different. A vase with roses becomes a tree, my jewellery box turns into a house, a teddy bear into a mountain... it's weird but kind of interesting... I knew my imagination was very active - I automatically see (the weird) things people say to me, like for example someone says ''I dyed my hair this morning'' and I see them doing it straight away, but I never knew my imagination was capable of changing everyday objects into a landscape...

Some time ago I decided that I preferred to walk around without my glasses, even if it gives me a headache, but I didn't really know why... I mean, who wouldn't want to see?
Well now I realised that when my eyes stop seeing, my imagination starts working properly. Some people have to close their eyes to imagine something, all I have to do is take off my glasses, and when an image starts forming, I just close my eyes and observe what's happening in my mind, I observe my imagination's work without disturbing it. I know it sounds like I've got a schizophrenia or something, but that's not the case. It's not like I actively think ''I can't disturb my imagination, she'll be angry''. I just don't try to control my thoughts.. unfortunately sometimes I do it with my words as well... like some people who had chemistry with me would know (sorry guys).. so yh, I don't try to control my thoughts because when I do, the image disappears, or becomes too regular and perfect, like a mathematical shape, not like something that would work peacefully with nature.

When the image has fully developed I ''take a screenshot'' of my mind, search for my sketchbook and then I quickly transfer it down onto the page, because if I don't do it straight away, the imagine would be gone from imagination after about 5 minutes.



Here's a result of my imagination:
Acrylic paint on a 16"x12" canvas.

NOT Winsor and Newton this time as it's an old painting :)



Lots of Love,
Marlena

Monday 12 May 2014

Elevation 12.05.2014

''People should talk less and draw more. Personally, I would like to renounce speech altogether and, like organic nature, communicate everything I have to say visually.'' - Johann von Goethe

...


While browsing art tutorials on youtube I found something amazing, something I've never seen before... 
''To Paint is to Love Again'' by Henry Miller
I wish I had discovered this much earlier in my life... 
Mr Miller is such an inspiring man.
I'm not really a fan of his artwork but I do love listening to him.

Straight after listening to his book I felt like I could achieve anything. He made me realise how different it felt to be an artist.. Recently I started looking at things from a completely different perspective.. I started analysing trees, the way the leaves reflect sunlight, the way the bark is shaped.. the way the clouds move through the sky.. I keep on walking with my head up, focused on the shape of clouds.. I never used to that before.. only recently, when I actually started to paint properly I keep on finding myself doing all those weird things.. I've looked at those trees so many times before, but I never actually saw what I was looking at, like I was looking without seeing, listening without hearing... and Mr Miller made me realise that it is completely normal... so I'm weird in a normal way...

His book (well, audiobook) is simply amazing.
I shared it with my friend and even they started to think about beginning their painting journey.
Amazing right? Maybe teachers should start playing it in schools?
We would have SO many artists around.
Picasso once said ''All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.''
and I agree with him... I bet most of my friends loved creating art at some point in their lives and then they just left it... It's really sad, but it's true.
Why is the number of artists so insignificant when compared to the number of people in business? Money. Money is the answer. But why? There is money in art too. Money AND pleasure. If you love what you're doing, no matter what it is, then eventually you'll be great at it and then if you want to get money out of it, then all you have to do is show it to people and you'll find someone who loves it. There will always be somebody who loves your style and who will gladly buy something from you.

You may ask ''how would you know? you haven't sold anything yet'', well that's true, but not because I didn't have an opportunity to - people have asked about buying my work, but I just get too attached to my paintings. I mean, when you spend 7 hours painting and refining something over and over again, then there is no way not to get emotionally attached to it, well at least not for me.

So here is the new thing I'm attached to:


''Elevation'' 

(I'll change the photo later - I kinda edited the painting since taking this one hahaha)

Oil painting on a 30" by 20" canvas :)
obviously paints from Winsor and Newton :)



Lots of Love,
Marlena

Saturday 3 May 2014

Imagine 3.05.2014

On Tuesday I was watching a lot of mountain tutorials because I really wanted to learn how to paint them properly... they're surprisingly hard.. especially the snow... so I spent a lot of time researching the techniques.. my favourite video was this one [Click], probably because I love Jason Bowen's paintings.. he's one of the artists that I look up to...  His work is amazing and I admire his style. All of the videos are really informative and helpful so I'd suggest watching all of the mountain tutorials on youtube if you want to learn how to paint them :)

I only used 3 colours in this painting - Phthalo Blue, Titanium white and Ivory black all from the Artists' range by Winsor and Newton.. It was my first painting using them and I love those paints so much! They're much better than the Winton series - the consistency is a bit different and they're easier to work with :) I also used sansodor to thin out the paint for the lake reflection.The mountains were done using a painting knife and soft brushes :) The snow on the trees was applied using a small, round hog brush from Winsor and Newton (yup, I'm addicted to them)

This painting was one of my random ones... after watching so many videos and looking at so many photos of mountains in various locations, an image formed in my head and I decided that it was going to be my next painting... so I took out my paints, my brushes and a canvas and started painting... it took me 3 hours to get to the first stage of the painting :D I obviously had a single song on repeat (as always - to make sure I stay in the same mood throughout the painting), this time it was Purple by Harry Harris (can be found on Spotify) :)

Then I left the painting to dry for the next 4 days and today I finally finished it :D 
The last stage took me about an hour, so in total I've spent 4 hours on it *whew!*. 
My mum even said that it's her favourite painting by me! and trust me, she's very critical... she loves realistic paintings and that's kinda what I was aiming for so I guess I achieved my goal :)


Here is the final painting: 


and here's the first stage: 


Lots of Love,
Marlena