What do you think about when you hear the word nature? Green, soothing, fresh, natural? I am a botanical artist whose greatest joy is rendering what Mother Nature so artfully created. The color combinations are second to none. The curves and intricacies of flowers intrigue me. Even faded flowers take on a new softer hue. They are so beautiful, even at the end.
Have you noticed how the world looks a little different from season to season? It isn’t just the presence or absence of leaves and snow. The light itself seems to take on a different look. Consider the comments we often hear about a winter day being “clear and crisp” or the “light being thin.”
Perfectionism is the counterfeit of excellence. It demands good results now, while pursuing excellence aims for progress, not perfection.
Perfectionism makes it hard to start painting (“What if it doesn’t come out well?”) and hard to finish one (“It’s not good enough, I have to keep painting on it.”).
Ferguson, Mo. native Lisa Perez returned to the St. Louis area in 2020, retiring from a career in marketing on the West Coast. The move turned out to be more than geographical.
“I missed painting,” Perez said.
Shortly after her arrival she rented studio space in Webster Groves and embarked upon a new journey --rediscovering her passion for art instilled in her as a child. “We were always looking at paintings and talking about painting,” Perez said of her family.
Anne Molasky was among the St. Louis-area painters highlighted at the recent national juried RepreSENSATATIONAL show. Her featured work, Goddess in the Making, is part of her evolving Goddess Within series of large-scale portraits that explore feminine strength and empowerment within a natural setting.
The temperature was in the upper 90s when Judy Stroup set out to paint the willow tree and surrounding grasses near the riverbank at Cliff Cave Park. The park’s main shelter provided just enough relief to make painting bearable. Then came the gift of breeze.
Learning how to simplify is always the most important and challenging part of starting portraits. That means composing the portrait with general forms instead of particular features.
I was introduced to Watercolor by a wonderful, patient teacher, Marty Spears. She was giving classes in her basement, and I jumped at the chance to experiment with this most amazing medium. I was immediately captivated by the water and pigment running across the paper, not really caring what I was doing, but enjoying every minute.
Humans have been crafting art and useful objects from nature for centuries, but in today’s mechanized world we have been losing touch with grown and found things. My artwork has found a contemporary way to tell stories with these materials.
Kathy Corey interviews award-winning artist, Lisa Ober about her life as a client-based artist, her interesting career path, and her advice to young artists on what it takes to become a successful artist.
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