Inspiration or Imitation

“I think that when one is young it is the object, the outside world that fire’s one’s enthusiasm: one is carried away by it.  In later life, it is something within himself, the need to express an emotion, that leads a painter to choose his point of departure, one form rather than another.”                                                                        Pierre Bonnard

I am frequently asked what I mean when I say: the designs in nature inspire me and motivate my art.  So, I thought that I would share with you some of the designs, I found in nature on vacation, that intrigued me.  These are some of the photographs that will inspire my abstract work in the next few months, and that I see in work I have produced.

It is after our initial introduction to the creative process, when sometimes copying is a necessary tool to learning a technique, that we need to explore what it is, that we as artists, want to say, and how we want to say it.

Finding what is right for us, and what truly expresses who we are, takes time, and a lot of experimentation.  And yes, it changes as we develop and grow more confident, gain more experience, and have various life changing experiences.

“Imitations is not inspiration, and inspiration only can give birth to a work of art.  The least of man’s original emanations is better than the best of borrowed thought.”    

 Albert Pinkham Ryder