When I first started to paint I wanted like most others to make something recognisable in a pleasing setting such as a boat on a lake or a beautiful sunrise on a crisp morning. That was good but over time I realised that this art was like many others. The art world is drenched with familiar paintings in particular styles - I did not want to follow that path, I wanted to make different art in my own way.
The more an artist paints the more likely it is they develop their own "signature" that can set them apart from others but it does not always happen. In my own case it took real effort to paint as I really wanted to paint. To be honest I was not sure and that self doubt together with pressure from family and friends to conform created a real challenge. It was surely worth the challenge and I worked with like minded artists and tutors. It took a while but now I am confident and the thought of painting like others is really unattractive.
During my journey I made some wild paintings - paintings that did not fit with me at the time but these very different paintings were informative to me and certainly worth recording for future reference. At times these very unusual art pieces would help me move along, I have put some of them here for you to see. Please enjoy some of my very different paintings created during my journey, I hope it will be interesting to you and if you are an artist in the making I hope it helps you along your journey...
I love to paint hats of all kinds but I never expected to create them like these paintings. I have only done the three pieces below in this way but I may just return some day...
I have felt the need to paint my reaction to war and in particular The Great War 1914-1918. The three paintings below are a selection from the series, please click World War One paintingsto see them all. There are many paintings about war made by very accomplished artists, I just had to add some of my own.
Abstract figure paintings are great to paint and I have done a lot. I use the clothing to set off colours against each other but these two needed no colour, I decided that after painting the background. Mostly white paper makes the figure with a little paint and some pencil strokes.
Here is a slide projection of some more of my unusual art...