Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Thoughts on style


still life with coffee pot and apple
One of my still life pastels—
this was fun to do
An artist's thoughts on style, or where will I land with landscapes?

With still life pastels I seemed to find my artistic style fairly early on. But I've had more of a struggle with landscapes, and I've never been entirely satisfied with the results. Some landscapes came out very nicely, but I wondered if they were merely exceptions to the rule. Maybe they pointed to something I was overlooking. After all, I have been drawing for decades and a style ought to come without too much of a struggle. It should be fun to do in some way (which is not the same as easy). The lack of some level of enjoyment always means something's not quite right. At least for me.

So the landscapes have recently been taking on a more nervous, line oriented style as opposed to the more representational feel I lean toward with a still life. That's the case for now but no one should be surprised if I follow various approaches to the landscape before I settle on one basic thematic style, although of course it would vary according to the particular scene. Drawing the outdoors is infinitely more complex than what I can arrange in a still life indoors. 

I took a few more pictures today in hopes of carrying on the pursuit of that elusive thing called style. Keep coming back to this blog to see some samples of what I'm talking about. 

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