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

[Spotify] or [Youtube]

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

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