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Studio Art
For Sale
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In art there are as many varied and wonderful mediums to express your creativity as there are subjects to capture. The important thing is never to let lack of experience stop you from trying something new.
I began drawing and painting as a child. Firstly anything that I saw
around me, later animals although these were mainly horses, horses, horses!
At school I was taught to shade in between the lines, never to use too
much black and to always listen to my art teacher as they knew what they
were talking about. What they knew was that I used too much detail, that
I would spend too long on a picture, that I would never sketch what they
wanted me to and that I would only draw horses! I would listen politely
to what they had to say and go home and paint the way I wanted.
In my teens I was sent to the Rudolf Steiner School with its curriculum
based on the anthrosophical teachings of the Austrian philosopher. There
I was taught not to use black or white as they weren't colours, in fact
not to have lines at all, and to paint "emotions". Once again I was told
that I used too much detail in my artwork. On Friday afternoons our art
teacher would send us into the garden to blur our eyes and draw "the feeling"
of the garden. I would sit on top of an old tree trunk and draw horses.
The art teacher gave up.
Summer holidays were my free time where I could follow my instincts.
By this time I had developed a deep sense of the market value of my work
due to a severe shortage of pocket money. After initially shocking my
parents at age five by arranging my scribbles around the sitting room
and saying that I was going to ask all the neighbours to my art exhibition
(for a fee naturally) I progressed onto doing craft work. Rug making and
macramé earned me a good little income for a while until fashions changed
when I began pressing flowers and fashioning them into Victorian-style
cards, bookmarks and pictures.
Always looking for a new pastime I took up stone painting when I was
twelve. I was staying at my grandparent's small farm at the time and set
up an alfresco studio under the big plum tree that grew at the edge of
the vegetable garden of their century old home. Still regarded as part
of the Hippie culture with all the quirky connotations of the ubiquitous
pet stone my new interest was regarded with some amusement by the rest
of the family. However, I enjoyed the novelty of creating faces and animals
out of this cold unyielding medium. I would paint my cousins' names on
a small rock, surrounding them with a garland of flowers on a darkly coloured
background. I also glued stones together fashioning googly-eyed frogs
that sat outside in my parent's garden for years before their heads fell
off! However, when the summer holidays ended so did my new interest, the
few pieces I had finished packed away into the back of a cupboard.
Then one day in the winter of 1998 I was browsing through the library
when I came upon the book "The Art of Painting Animals On Rocks" by Lin
Wellford, an American artist who worked predominantly with stone replacing
canvas as her surface of choice. The projects were done in acrylics a
medium I hadn't used before, having previously worked in inks, watercolours
and oils. However, I marvelled at the way she had turned simple river
rocks into rabbits, deer, owls and cats. Firing both my imagination and
enthusiasm I collected several ordinary looking stones, bought some paints
and set to work closely following the examples in her book.
My first effort was a Calico cat. Within a week I had turned out three
cats of various colours and left them at my parent's home on their coffee
table. To my surprise visitors to their house began buying the work I
left there. Within a few weeks I also attended a craft fair and sold to
the public for the first time. From there I began to receive orders for
"pet portraits" where I would reproduce a photo of the owner's loved one
onto a stone.
No one minded that I used too much detail in my work, I used black and
white, and I painted horses! Working to deadlines meant that I didn't
have the luxury of perfectionism, there were problems to be solved with
every picture and these were worked on quickly so that the commissioned
piece could reach its new home in time for the birthday or anniversary
it had been ordered for. More importantly I developed my own style which
quickly became recognisable to others.
Rocks took on a new meaning. Eagerly sought after and prized for their
shape, expeditions to the beach or river became a treasure hunt for stones
that were shaped like a rabbit, a cat or a dragon. Imagination ran wild.
Working "in the round" was different from anything I had ever encountered
before. Not only was the finished product a painting but also a sculpture.
Best of all it was heart warming to listen to the owners tell me the stories
of their pet when their commission was delivered. Often the pet was long-since
gone and this artwork was a permanent memorial to them. It also meant
that people who would not normally afford an original painting could own
something unique that they could hopefully treasure and enjoy.
Although I am more or less a self-taught artist I have learned some valuable
lessons through my artistic experiences. Firstly, in art there are as
many varied and wonderful mediums to express your creativity as there
are subjects to capture. The important thing is never to let lack of experience
stop you from trying something new. I have learnt that is always important
to move out of your comfort zone and experience the fear of attempting
the unknown. Never let someone else's judgement dent your self-esteem
as our opinions are only the result of our insecurities. Too often we
allow our fear of not producing something perfect stop us even trying.
Paint for yourself and if someone else likes it, good, if not, well you're
just ahead of your time. And most importantly, enjoy yourself! ©Jen Longshaw
2000-2006 Please do not copy in any manner, print or electronic,
without permission from the author.
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