Mistakes - A Blessing or a Curse?

The first part of Aspire Gallery - Aspire Gallery Online - is getting closer.
It is looking beautiful and will provide a wonderful opportunity for artists to showcase  their work.

Unfortunately, the technology involved in creating something that seems so simple, is mind-boggling. The easiest way to relate the website's development is to undertaking a very complex maths sum at school...........make the slightest  mistake and the whole outcome changes.........Remember, the frustration of having the wrong answer and having to scroll back through every line to find the error? Now, triple this ten-fold and it will explain the situation I've been experiencing.

It is not so black and white with mistakes in art and craft though.

In knitting, if you drop a a stitch, your piece loses the intended form. You can try to hide your mistake by adding a stitch or stitches in a later row, keep going and be happy with the variant, or you can unravel the stitches back to the mistake and correct.

Mistakes in art and craft become subjective. Sometimes, the beauty is in the mistake and a piece  becomes more appealing because of its' 'flaw'. This is especially so in watercolour.

Backwashes in watercolour are usually accidental in nature. They occur when you lay two different washes close together and one happens to touch the other, the wetter of the two will flow into the other. Water - spotting is when water is accidentally spilt and damages the watercolour.

Both of these accidents, to the traditional water colourist can spell disaster. However, such mistakes can have a wonder in themselves. I get quite excited when they happen accidentally in my work and create their own unique quality.

More so, it is when water spotting and backwash are used in combination wondrous effects can be created. It is just knowing how to use such accidents to your advantage.

For example, when clear water is dropped on a very wet wash a soft and subtle effect is created. When water is dropped just before a wash is dry the effect is harsh and creates hard edges. The drier wash is less likely to flow back into the water to soften the edge.

Interesting backwash can be achieved by touching the edge of a wash with clear water. The pigment gets pulled away and concentrated.

The example below shows where the pigment is being pulled away.

Some artists like Björn Bernström, deliberately use such a technique to form the basis on their work.

See the examples below.

See original image here

See original image here

Kreative Kisses,
Donagh

Inspiration

Nikki Monaghan. Artist

I'm feeling inspired by my beach trips the last couple of days!

I wonder whether this artist is being somewhat ' tongue in cheek ' with the title, but perhaps not. INSPIRATION comes from all sources, even the most unexpected, and that is what creativity is all about. 

I am trying to get my head around all the technology of posting on a blog, but my goal is to share lots of creative ideas that will hopefully inspire.

Please feel free to give me links to other sites you find inspirational.

Today, for example, I was most impressed by a Facebook post by The Threads Studio. It not only posted a photograph that inspired inspiration, but went one step further and showed how to achieve your desired inspiration (see photos below). Very clever.

See original post here

See original post here

Facebook, is in fact quite an amazing inspirational place in itself. Photographs that exhibit an almost 'lost and found' subtly can provide inspiration for watercolours. Artists can be shown ideas, methods or skills that they have never even thought of. Some quotes can just make you think - which may in turn develop into further exploration.

Presently, Aspire Gallery's own Facebook page is trying to do that a little........inspire and to spread creativity - two wondrous traits that just makes the heart feel happy.

Also, look at Aspire Gallery's  PINTEREST. There are some beautiful pieces of work that, again, are inspirational themselves.

As for me, I am trying to find inspiration for my own wet-on-wet watercolour figures and a way to simplify them to purely beautiful forms.......a much harder skill than I imagined.

Kreative Kisses,

Donagh

Aspire Gallery inspires to aspire

With a background in design and art I get great enthusiasm from wonderful creative people and the objects or art they create - hence the concept for Aspire Gallery was sown.

Aspire Gallery is an actual physical building that is still undergoing the final finishing touches before it opens.

Once opened though it will be a creative hub, offering jewellery cabinets, plinths and wall space for lease to both emerging and established artists, craftspeople and professionals aspiring for greater exposure and recognition of their work.

It will also be a place that will host exciting art, craft and design workshops.

In the meantime, I am in the process of opening Aspire Gallery Online where you can list your work for FREE that is easy to use and navigate.

A Facebook page exists to keep everybody in the loop.

I also want to connect and spread inspiration, but as not to continually clog everyone's newsfeed I have started this blog. 

SO WELCOME.