abstract realism

On Beating the Art Blahs

At the moment winter is setting in where I live. The leaves are drying up and blowing away, the garden is frozen and dead. It is cold inside and out and inspiration seems to have gone with the leaves. As I sit here bundled up in front of my blank computer screen trying to drum up some inspiration to create more artwork, all I can think about is how cold my toes are and how blank my mind is.

So where do we find inspiration on the bleak blah days like this? Sometimes I like to visit online art museums and libraries to look for old vintage art. That never fails to get my creative juices flowing.

Also, and I hope it won’t sound crazy, but sometimes I just go back over my own artwork because most of the time when I am creating a piece of artwork, I have more than one idea going on in my head. Since I can only follow one path at a time, when I go back and revist some of my older work it jogs my memory of the path not taken and I can sometimes explore that avenue as well.

Examples of this kind of thing can be seen in my portfolio where there is more than one style of art made with the same image. Below is an example of two different styles of art I created using one of my floral photographs as a starting point. I hope this post helps you find new ways of getting inspired when you are feeling empty and blank by reviewing your own artwork and revamping it into totally new pieces of art that might reach a new audience you wouldn’t have appealed to before.

Wild Wildflowers Colorful Botanical Art by Shelli Fitzpatrick — Get prints of this art here

Comicbook Wildflowers Botanical Art by Shelli Fitzpatrick — Get prints of this art here

Black Eyed Susan

Her name is Rudbeckia but you can call her black eyed susan. She is wild and free and loves to snuggle up with an Indian blanket on the side of a hill or in a meadow. She has long golden petals and beautiful brown lashes and though she resembles her cousin the sunflower, she likes to think she is more fun. You can become quite attached to her and love her all summer long but don’t cry when she goes away for the winter. She promises to return next spring.

She allowed me to capture her in this pretty abstract artwork so that you could have something to remember her by. Click HERE to get your botanical print of the beautiful wildflower named Black Eyed Susan.

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There was a question recently posed in an artists forum discussion. “Abstract or Realism?” and my gut response was, both! So I started to explore if there was such a thing as abstract realism, because I really feel like we shouldn’t have to choose one or the other.

As it turns out Abstract realism is an art style that has been around for centuries but only began to be recognized around the 1950’s and 60’s. It has however recently gained a lot of popularity with today’s artists and art lovers. It is a fusion of abstract techniques and realism that lends itself to the digital medium quite well and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I have even created some abstract realism pieces myself without even realizing that was what I was doing. But I think it adds an element of interest, excitement and individuality to a piece to have both abstract and realistic elements blended together.

So if someone asks you; “abstract or realism?” just say both!