When I returned to painting in 2021, I devoted myself entirely to commissioned pet portraits.
For a while, this gave me a sense of fulfilment and allowed me to find my feet again in this artistic world that I’d left behind so many years ago. What a joy to be back with my brushes!
As the portraits passed, my creativity slowly began to tug at me, as if something was wrong and wanted to divert my attention.
For a while I didn’t pay much attention… Fear of offending? Afraid of how others and the community I’d built around my portraits would perceive a change of direction?
I suppose so.
I ended up splitting the difference by doing some personal work featuring animals in religious works.
On the one hand I continued to paint animals (a field in which I excel) and on the other the paintings I exhibited enabled me to promote my commissioned portraits website.
But something was missing, my inspiration (again) was telling me to look elsewhere.
It’s decidedly easy to get trapped in the artistic comfort of a technique that’s too well mastered.
But I had to get out, and once again listen to what I wanted to do.
Now I’m starting to paint humans in more complex and demanding works.
I have never doubted my abilities as a painter, my mastery, as much as I have since this change. It’s no longer portraits that I’m offering to commissioners, but a part of myself, a very intimate part that I’m offering to the world.
But I’m firmly convinced that creating an artistic project that reflects who I am raises my art to a higher level.
Today I feel much freer in my creative work, and paradoxically, when I’m commissioned to paint a portrait of an animal, I take even greater pleasure in doing it.
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