The Beauty of Simplicity - Oil on canvas 300 x 300mm
For me as an artist, seeing beauty in the normal, in the simple, in the day-to-day, is probably the greatest gift I have received since I started exploring my creativity. Whereas once I may have gone through each day lost in the thoughts in my head, I am now more mindful, I see, I'm entranced, I soak it in.
That is not to say that I exist in a constant state of wonder (although having young children is a lesson in this) but I do appreciate beauty, I am grateful for the play of light on something that briefly illuminates it and showcases its beauty.
I have an exhibition coming up next month as part of the NZ Art Guild and for this I have a panel which is a certain width and height and which I can fill up in any form I wish. While I was trying to decide on what I might like to paint and what I would like to express for this exhibition, I kept on coming back to the simple, the ordinary and the beauty in that. I decided to do a six part series of still lifes, focusing on the simplicity and the beauty in these ordinary objects, and try and do my best to show that illumination.
So often, we want beauty to be large and overwhelming so we can clearly identify it and say, that is beauty, that is special. But I am beginning to believe more and more that it is the beauty in every day, in the simple things, in the sunlight on the water that I drive past every morning, in the fog and rain smothering the skyscrapers on a misty morning, in the play of light on a child's toy sitting in the sunlight on the floor - that is what is meaningful, that is what gives colour and light to this life we chose to live.
That is not to say that I exist in a constant state of wonder (although having young children is a lesson in this) but I do appreciate beauty, I am grateful for the play of light on something that briefly illuminates it and showcases its beauty.
I have an exhibition coming up next month as part of the NZ Art Guild and for this I have a panel which is a certain width and height and which I can fill up in any form I wish. While I was trying to decide on what I might like to paint and what I would like to express for this exhibition, I kept on coming back to the simple, the ordinary and the beauty in that. I decided to do a six part series of still lifes, focusing on the simplicity and the beauty in these ordinary objects, and try and do my best to show that illumination.
So often, we want beauty to be large and overwhelming so we can clearly identify it and say, that is beauty, that is special. But I am beginning to believe more and more that it is the beauty in every day, in the simple things, in the sunlight on the water that I drive past every morning, in the fog and rain smothering the skyscrapers on a misty morning, in the play of light on a child's toy sitting in the sunlight on the floor - that is what is meaningful, that is what gives colour and light to this life we chose to live.
