The path through creativity is not a straight line. An artist tends to paint a very wide range of topics both to gain experience but also to find his favourite topics. Then there is the problem of style to work out. Should I paint reality, abstract or something in between. We can study numerous other artists and gain knowledge of composition, colour, drama, tone, reflected lights, which medium suits us, and how loose to finish off a painting.
Looking back over the years of my own journey, I have had numerous changes of travel as new ideas and experiences guide my progress. In childhood I just loved bright colours and this continued for many years, but as I began to mix with other amateur artists I started to feel bright colours were very unprofessional, so I slowly went into my grey period. This continued for many years till a one lady said she recognized one of my paintings in a gallery. She new it was mine as she said it was very grey. That moment changed my outlook. I went back into colour, and paintings began to sell a lot better. However my wish to improve my artwork got hampered with the need to paint accurately. If I painted a beech tree, it had to look like a beech tree and not an oak, ash or chestnut. I got bogged down with reality. It took a long time to come off that road. It was during my Loch Ard project (well over twenty images) looking for something different that I decided to paint a willow tree with bright red paint and purple and blue stems. It was very popular much to my amazement. So reality was no longer important, but it has been very hard to stay on that road as you know what things look like.
