I am an Artist based out of Northern California with my Husband and three girls.
And I am self taught. I was drawn towards art after I became a mother, and I found I was exhausted and drained and I felt my whole life was poured into being a mother and wife and I had nothing left just for me at the end of the day. Something wholly mine, something that had nothing to do with diapers or cleaning or laundry.
So I decided to get a hobby. And I had always admired people who knew how to paint. I could picture it, me as one of those girls with paint permanently splattered across her clothes and skin. Dried paint in her hair.
I started with Watercolor and I completely fell in love. I loved the way the paint flowed across the paper, the way you never were quite sure how it would dry. I loved everything about watercolor. Which eventually led to experimenting with other mediums as well. And I tried it all, watercolor, gouache. acrylics, oils, water mixable oils, digital art. I dove head first into painting and while I loved painting and mixing the paint, and swatching and mixing my own colors, I soon found the joy was taken out of it for me.
I started to let it all get too rigid. I focused too much on trying to be like other artists I admired instead of who I was. I would sit down to paint and pull everything out, try and find some inspiration, whether a photo, or still life- and It just stopped being fulfilling. It felt like a lot of work, and not in a good way. Not in the work hard and it pays off kind of way. I realized that I had lost the original joy I had found in painting.
And so I went back to the beginning to try and figure out where I went wrong. It took me finding abstract art to realize it was the piece I had been missing. I craved color and harmony, and something beautiful created from all of that. And Abstract art was the answer. It was everything I loved about painting and none of the things that drove me crazy. I could finally just let loose, be free, play with color, all while never really knowing how each piece will turn out. I felt alive again and so inspired to paint.
Find your style, find your own voice through art. Maybe that's hyper realistic, maybe its letting loose, or maybe its abstract. But just find what makes your soul sing, and do that.