Walking slowly, looking at your surroundings, focusing on what your eye catches, which colours you see and what you see below your feet: it unconsciously gives me references for structures, lines and combinations. For instance these pictures I took on a forest and lakeside walk:
... go out! I did and went for a hike, it was quiet in the forest, not many people around (no birds either, they were hiding) but nice autumn colours. And ideas for paintings, compositions and colour combinations.
I used an old trick, which we also learned on elementary school, to make weird creatures. And once started I tried some more:
On a bikeride I stopped to visit an old mill in a picturesque village. Inside the soft autumn light shone through the window, beautiful stillness captured on camera.
Sometimes you read a sentence and it hits you because you understand its meaning. I was reading an article about the work of an artist and they wrote: Art is about the way you see it. I read it again: Art is about the way YOU see it. The reason to make art is, amongst many other reasons, to show others how YOU see it. How you look at this tree, how you interpret this portrait. So we can all look at the same tree, but Art can show you how I see the tree. Often people want art that is realistic, that shows exactly the way a photo would look. But that is not art for me, it is a technical achievement for sure, but I like to see in art how YOU interpret it. This broadens my horizon and I like that.
So just to remind myself:
There is a favourite area which I revisit to walk and to enjoy the seasons. On an evening walk I spotted all the violet flowers in the field, I had not seen them before and am not sure what their name is. Three weeks later I visited the same spot and they had mown the whole (!) field, they were gone. I know it is the time to mow and the seeds will be there for next year, but I was so happy I had seen them flowering.
