What does inspiration have to do with it?

I haven’t been in an art class for a number of years so I decided to do an online art course. It's a 3-month course and the journey will probably continue for a year. The artist presenting is someone I've followed for several years and whose work I admire.

The first assignment was to make a board about what inspires you. I resisted this first assignment because it seemed a little too like art therapy. Many things inspire me but they're not things that, as an abstract artist I want to paint. I love sunsets. I love the ocean. I love the tangle of branches and vines. But, that does not compel me to paint them. I’m not drawn to paint sunsets. I’ve already painted sunsets.

Part of the course includes live zoom conversations with the artist and several art coaches. The conversation I listened to was about giving some thought to the “why“ of the things that inspire.

Pondering this I focused on current paintings and the artist statement I currently use. My statement says “painting is solving a puzzle. I make a mark and it creates a problem that will need to be solved with the next mark. The next mark creates a new problem. And so I work until I can find no more problems to solve.”

I think this is why I am drawn to the tangle of branches and vines in the Pacific Northwest. They are the lines and marks made by nature and beautiful in their own right. It is the pleasure of seeing the lines and the negative space between the lines that inspire and inform my work. It’s the color and mood of the sea that finds it’s way into my paintings.