Being relevant
Detail of After da Vinci: The Moaner, Lisa - Oil on Canvas 2021
Art History will always be there, so there is no rush in waiting for paint to dry!
(Well being relevant is tough if you start writing a blog post in February 2021 and only return to it in April 2022. I had a baby and that took up quite a lot of my time and energy, but hoping to get back here a bit now too!) Anyway, where was I?
I imagine lots of artists and painters sometimes find it tricky to strike up a conversation and create interest with friends, family and beyond, who don’t care much for art or painting, which is a shame. So how can you overcome this? I have no idea! My best idea is to try and keep my paintings and ideas up to date and fresh - I try and incorporate pop culture, current affairs etc… whilst also trying to adapt the traditional techniques of my favourite painters (Howson, Rembrandt, Currie and Caravaggio). What other ideas do I have?
Well, Pop Art has always appealed to me but so has Street Art. The two are often very witty and can quickly create works that reflect current trends and issues. It’s less easy to do this with oil paint as a medium because it does have one significant drawback - drying time! And if you want to build up layers, using impasto and glazes then trying to keep up with current affairs and pop culture is pretty tough indeed. Liquin definitely helps for the modern painter - it’s a must for me, makes the tricky science of oil painting so much simpler.
Digital drawing of Just Keith
If anyone ever says they can’t draw, show them Keith Haring - the king of mark making!
But my point is that referring to artists of the past (and present) can help give you ideas. I recently read a book about Hogarth’s prints - I have no idea why I picked it up - and it was fascinating seeing the satire and narrative that he would weave into his work. This approach really resonates with me. I like to think I have a decent sense of humour but you know what? There are not many jokes in paintings or laughs in art galleries and that needs to change. Reading Private Eye never hurts anyone either!
Detail of After James Abbott McNeill: Whistler's Mother - Oil on Canvas 2021
Little changes to the names of paintings can make it imply something different. Limiting creativity to just the painting and drawing means you could miss out on some good ideas.
So that helps for content and subject matter but what about style? Well, there are loads of other artists to take inspiration from. One of my favourite Instagram pages is Toby Ursell’s @thedavincitobe and his reinterpretations of Velasquez, Titian and Rembrandt to name a few - go check it out and you will see why. His paintings have a lovely balance of old and new, traditional and contemporary - he has reinvigorated these compositions and they are such fun but remain proper paintings with all the lovely qualities that oil paint can offer in particular. And I haven’t even mentioned his awesome Popeye paintings, they probably deserve their own blog entirely.