Michelle Kral
An artist I like is Michelle Kral, who paints very loose watercolours and is generous enough to have a lot of video material online which has been inspirational for me. Today she posted a demo of Loose Tulips, which is a very good exercise for warming up before starting a painting session. Click here to visit YouTube and see her video for loose tulips, and this is my version done this morning.
 |
| Loose Tulips |
I also have learnt a lot from her poppy paintings. Her website is at Michelle Kral and she also has videos on Skillshare Classes in Watercolour.
 |
| Pink Poppies |
Spain
I have spent the winter in a rented villa in Valencia, five minutes on foot from the rocky coastline of the Costa Blanca. We've been very lucky to have a couple of kilometers of coastline to enjoy which hasn't been built over completely with villas, tower blocks and roads. Just a tiny bit of almost natural Spain. Rare enough. Inspirational for painting.
Alison Fennell
While I have been here I have been quite cut off from normal human interaction, which has its ups and downs. One of the ups was coming across a new project started by Alison Fennel, a watercolourist I have admired for a long time. The Pottering Artist is an inspiring blog and she is also offering a bi-monthly magazine for a paltry sum, which can be downloaded to Kindle or received by mail - go to The Pottering Artist Magazine for more details.
Jordan Peterson
Another thing I do when I'm away for the winter is discover new (to me) people. Last year the big name for me was Jordan Peterson. I was bowled over by the way he speaks directly to people about the things which matter, and took no nonsense from anyone, least of all extremists of any kind. Whilst he doesn't connect directly with painting, he did offer me an introspective experience. As well as reading his book, 12 Rules for Life I bought his Self Authoring Programme and completed it in one day of frenetic typing. It brought me quite a lot of peace. I also like that he has a wonderful collection of Native Indian art from Canada. And most importantly of all, he understands why we artists simply must paint. Here is Jordan talking movingly about Why you need art in your life. One of the most powerful 12 minutes I've ever heard.
Well again Diane! Thank you for mentioning me in this post. I am truly flattered.
ReplyDeleteI am also very interested in Jordan and his self-authoring. I am going to do it. It sounds as if it gave you a pivotal moment and in our transient world we need an anchor to our deep selves don't we. Thanks so much for sharing this. I have subscribed to his channel.
Yes! Jordan is a very unusual man, he feels everything so passionately and yet he is very clear thinking. I would love to meet him but he has about 40 million fans so it’s unlikely to happen in this life! Doing the Self Authoring was very transformative, I also did a bit of inner child work and started to slow down a bit. I hope you watch the little video clip I posted, as it really sums up what it’s all about. There are a lot of naysayers out there trying to destroy Jordan, but they have to be ignored! I’m glad he has reached out to you too!
ReplyDelete