Dream Big, Start Small
A few of my favorite of the 5” x 7” paintings, which helped me to find my landscape painting style.
The life of an artist can be a rather solitary one. For an introvert like myself, that can be a wonderful thing…most of the time. As much as I adore my only coworker, Zorro, it would be lovely to find a sense of community with my fellow artists. Plus, who doesn’t love to see artists helping and supporting their fellow artists? It’s with that sense of community in mind that I offer the first installment of my ongoing series Art Tip Tuesday. One Tuesday every month, I’ll share an art tip that I hope you’ll find helpful in your own artistic practice.
I encourage my fellow artists out there to do the same. Comment below with your best art tips and tricks or send me a private message to start a conversation. I’d love to see your latest work and follow your journey.
For this first installment, I thought I’d start at the beginning…at least the beginning of this year, and with it, the beginning of my exploration of landscape painting.
A stack of my 5” x 7” landscape paintings
Throughout most of my artistic practice, I’ve actually focused predominantly on portraiture. While portrait painting remains one of my greatest artistic passions, I wanted to focus my efforts this year on another passion of mine: the great outdoors. As a rock climber and outdoor enthusiast, most of my camera’s memory card was already overburdened with images of breathtaking landscapes. I had a veritable gold mine of reference material already stocked. I was finally ready to marry my two greatest passions of art and nature.
IF YOU’RE EVER EMBARKING ON A NEW SERIES, SUBJECT MATTER, OR STYLE, MY TIP FOR YOU IS TO DREAM BIG BUT START SMALL.
It’s not like I’d just invented landscape painting, so why had I avoided working with the subject matter for so long? I suppose I never quite felt like I could compete with the natural beauty of the outdoors. I’ve never been interested in copying nature, but now I was curious to see if I could emulate the peaceful bliss that I feel in nature while maintaining my own artistic style.
Although landscapes have been painted throughout art history, it was new territory for me, and I was unsure of where to begin. If you’re ever embarking on a new series, subject matter, or style, my tip for you is to dream big, but start small.
I bought a pack of 5” x 7” canvases and began painting. My first few paintings were absolutely…terrible. But the beautiful thing about starting small is that you can experiment to your heart’s content without feeling like you’ve lost too much time or money in the process.
Eventually, I started to see a landscape style develop that I quite liked - a style that felt like my most authentic expression. I was now truly enjoying the process.
One of my breakthrough 5” x 7” paintings became one of my favorite works in the portfolio, “Moab Blooms,” acrylic, 20” x 16”
With renewed excitement and confidence, I recreated a few of my most successful experimentations on larger canvas. I now felt comfortable enough to spend more time (and money) on a single piece.
By now, I’m painting almost exclusively on larger canvas, but I’m incredibly grateful for these sweet little minis for giving me the confidence and the freedom to experiment that I sorely needed.