What Inspires Me to Paint?
The questions “What inspires you to paint?” or "Where do you find inspiration?” are ones I’m often asked, including today during coffee with a new friend. I had to sit back for a moment and ask myself: where does the spark for a new piece come from?
Travel
I am always looking and observing while traveling. Looking at the landscape. Looking at trees. Looking at flowers. And today, I realized that despite my fascination with trees, I don’t have any paintings of them at the moment!
“If the artist has outer and inner eyes for nature, nature rewards him by giving him inspiration.” – Wassily Kandinsky
Culture
Traveling in Tanzania during 2023, and seeing the beautiful Kitenge fabric has, I think, inspired a lifelong fascination with this colourful fabric. I am now starting to add Sweshwe, printed or dyed cotton fabric to my paintings and love the additional variation of design. A fun fact, I was quite obsessed with Sweshwe fabric when our children were toddlers, and made numerous outfits for them out of this fabric, typically in blue fabric and finished with bright red, yellow or green bias binding and ribbons.
“There are no rules. That is how art is born, how breakthroughs happen. Go against the rules or ignore the rules. That is what invention is about.” – Helen Frankenthaler
Memories
My mom loved flowers and her garden was always filled with color - agapanthus, arum lilies, tulips, proteas… Not roses, and to this day, it is still a flower that “bewitches” me whenever I try to paint it.
“To be an artist is to believe in life.” – Henry Moore
Personal experience
I discovered neurographic art a few years ago, and enjoy the relaxing, and a little repetitive nature, of this art form. It allows my mind to wander, almost emptying it of thoughts!
“Art is a line around your thoughts.” – Gustav Klimt
Emotion
I rarely express anger in my art. Flowers don’t really allow that. But recently, after a sleepless night, frustrated by my inability to sleep, I created a gelatin print that expressed my anger at the state of the world!
“If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint.” – Edward Hopper
Equally, I can spend hours painting flowers, or an imaginary landscape, marveling at the beauty of nature!
“Art evokes the mystery without which the world would not exist.” – René Magritte
Influence from others
This was most pronounced when I was asked to do the illustrations for What is a Perfect World? The friends working on this with me pushed me out of my comfort zone, and inspired me to really look around. I think this book is a true summary of influences from all over, a coming together of ideas that I still marvel in. I could not just include one or two of the illustrations from the book! These illustrations remains my all time favourite pieces of work!
“Art should be something that liberates your soul, provokes the imagination and encourages people to go further.” – Keith Haring
And I often have to remind myself of this - “Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” – Andy Warhol