In my imagination...

“In my imagination I can see what the eyes cannot see. I can hear what the ears cannot hear. I can feel what the heart cannot feel.”
- Peter Nivio Zarlenga



Watercolour on X-pressit 300gsm

And Einstein said, "I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." 

How often do you, as an artist, work purely from imagination? I have found that, the next best thing to painting en plein air, is to paint from my imagination. Sometimes I do have an image in my mind, but most of the time it's just letting the colour flow and watching what emerges. And I'm sure that much of our 'imagination' is fueled by what we have experienced in the past, but it can also be a wonderful journey into the new and unexpected...

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Someone's life somewhere...

"Use your Imagination, not to scare yourself to death,
but to Inspire yourself to Live."
- Adele Brockman

A daily practice of sketching and painting gives you a chance to exercise the big three P's - practice, practice, practice!

A bit more on the sketching side - a farm road leading into someone's life on a smallholding. Here I used my Parker Fountain pen with black Quink ink and a colour wash.

An artist's biggest problem is how to find inspiration. Once you have a subject, a character, or a circumstance that fascinates you, it’s all anyone can do to keep you from rushing to the blank page and sketching away like mad.

One of the reasons for the elusive nature of inspiration is that we expect finding inspiration to be effortless. More than effortless – we expect it to be nearly magical. One day we’ll open the drapes and look out on the street and there, walking in front of us, will be the character around which our next great sketch will revolve.

Sure, sometimes inspiration happens unexpectedly, at just the right time and in just the right place. However, most of the time, artists have to go looking for it. And we have to have the skills to recognize where to find it.