A Glimpse at Studio Life

Today I'd like to share with you a piece I've been working on in attempt to develop some of my painting skills.

I primarily work in acrylics as they are very forgiving and re workable, water colour and oil not so much. As an "experimental" artist I tend to spend my time messing about till things suite my fancy. Really feel it out! Intuitive art as you'd call it, is a wonderful practice. There is certainly something soul soothing about following your inner impulses with every brush stroke.

Just go with the flow! Art should be made for the spirit after all not the audience.

I used to spend a lot of time in my high school days drawing portraits of various artists, friends or subjects in a more or less traditional fashion. Trying very hard to be precise about my markings. As I broke out of my shell a little I grew more and more abstract. I began to prefer a very impulsive experimental approach to my practice. It was simply a lot more fun to just go at it than mull over every line so meticulously.

However over the years I've lost touch with many of my old methods and my patience for the follow through. Fast art just felt so freeing. So recently I've made a point of re-exploring some old drawing techniques and integrating them into my signature expressionist style. Hoping to bring new life to my work by actually creating a fairly well rendered underpainting for this piece instead of just hashing it out without a plan.

Here were the results so far...

This painting was my attempt at making my own twist of one of my favourite album covers. The subject is my reimagining of Kevin Ayers from the front of his album, Sweet Deceiver (1975)

As I'm a lover of all things science fiction I decided to start taking the background in a sci-fi direction as to add some personal flavour. Placing the subject in front of a large triangular window overlooking the vastness of outer space. The sweater slung over his shoulder is beginning to dissolve into the background and off shoot into abstract whirling tendrils. Simply, Tubes as I like to refer to them. These tubular designs are a reoccurring theme in my work. I imagine it has something to do with how interconnected everything in this universe is. Maybe there's something to analyze here, but in all honesty I really just enjoy drawing tubes!

(All Original Artwork by Emily Dylan)