WHY MY ART DEGREE HAS ME AVOIDING COMMISSIONS
There was never any question. Art was my chosen pathway to pursue after A-levels, but the idyll wasn’t quite what I expected.
Photo Credit: (c) Neil Cannon
I soon discovered from the one-year Foundation Art course that my enjoyment of creating realistic artwork was perhaps not the way forward in academic terms. We were encouraged to think outside the box, to explore the range of our creativity and express ourselves without rules or limitations. I understood the need to be pushed out of your comfort zone; but artistically, it just wasn’t really me. Students who dribbled paint around and used installations with pulled-off plastic doll heads were commended for their originality, but it left me knowing that I would not be able to pursue the Fine Art course I assumed I would.
Instead, I completed a three-year degree in Applied Art. This was a craft-based course, learning skills from textiles to jewellery to ceramics, and I ended up specialising in glass. I adored the seductive characteristics that glass beholds and its ability to contain inner qualities beyond its surface.
While I loved the glasswork I was able to produce, there was a sticky point that has never left me.
Photo Credit: (c) T J Allen Art
The requirement to fulfil a brief set by the tutors and to produce work that delivered to their expectations, and ultimately relied on their approval for good marks, was stifling on my creativity. I was trying to work based on what I thought they wanted. I was forever trying to chase an outcome that I thought would make them happy and would gain me better marks. Six months before the end of my degree during an upsetting one-to-one, one tutor rather unhelpfully asked me if I wanted to drop out! Maybe it was a test? Maybe it was an indication for her lack of empathy? Maybe she just didn’t understand how to help me?
Thankfully, a new tutor specialising in glass started soon after and his encouragement and support revived my enthusiasm and love for my work. He helped me leave with my head held high and I was proud to leave with a 2:1 under my belt. Unfortunately, the scars gained from those years allowed the dust to settle on my art materials for over 15 years.
The passing of time and the gaining of experience and maturity in life shone a light on what is important to me. After I’d very slowly gained back the confidence to start on my art again at the end of 2019, I’ve since then been able to see things in a different light. The key to my work now, is to listen to my instinct and to intuitively follow what feels right to me.
Realistic artwork has always been what I’m drawn to (both to create and to view) and I feel I have specifically been gifted with the skills, talent and ability to deliver on this front.
I am at my artistic best when I am producing work from my heart and that is why I specialise in wildlife art. Safari makes me feel alive. Nature breathes life into me. Spending weeks on a piece of work allows my imagination to carry me back to the time when I took the reference photographs and I love reliving the memories of past adventures.
My art is an exchange of love and value. It is so much more than ‘just a picture’. I have to connect with the image I choose to work with, it can’t just be any old photo. I take time deliberating over the right picture.
I really care about the level of detail in my work. The overall ‘big picture’ effect has to provide a striking impression, but the intricacies of the light and shade, the glint in the eyes, the individual strands of hair or wrinkled skin, that is what draws you in closer to see the animal leap off the page. I spend hours and hours ensuring this is achieved.
Nothing is done by chance. I strive to provide more than a representation of an animal on a piece of paper. The title of the work is as significant as the image and the layered meanings behind the work are a reflection of my feelings at the time of creation.
Producing the artwork for myself initially, enables me to fully immerse in it. I’m not working to someone else’s standards or expectations; it is just me and the art, and that puts me at the top of my game and allows me to create my best work.
I want people to fall in love with my art because they are simply drawn to it and because they recognise my passion and value my skills.
Photo Credit: (c) T J Allen Art