My Inspirations for Creating Art

From Fox broadcast at Field of Dreams (8/12/21)

Lately, I have been inspired by what I see on social media, TV, commercial ads, and of course movies. I've even captured images from what is being displayed on my TV using my cellphone. It's overwhelming how many photos I've conveniently stored there. I wonder how the old masters would have used the technology and media of today to capture, store, and manipulate images more readily and without spending hours observing, sketching, and drawing what they saw. Of course, they had to rely much more on their own imagination, models, painting outdoors from nature, and the work of other artists for inspiration.

Paint 3D Landscapes
by Jon Patterson

Producing art can be its own inspiration. Practicing and experimenting with techniques and media provides new ideas and develops new skills. I'm constantly reading, consulting my own library of art books, researching topics and artists online, and journaling about future art posts. I find that my art colleagues and my own brother produce much more art than I do, which inspires me to create more art. I've already completed five new works using Paint 3D. And I'm working on an acrylic portrait of one of my favorite baseball players.

Ballet (after Degas)
Ken Patterson

While planning and preparing to teach art to others, I often get inspired to create my own examples for my students or pull images from online sources. For my pastels class, I tried my hand at reproducing a Degas painting as a way of employing many of the techniques I was intending to share with my students.

Bryce and Friends (2021), Ken Patterson

I am also inspired by things in my own life, including of course my pets. I look forward to our annual trip to Palm Springs and our visits to the California dog parks along the way. Here is a pastel version of a photo I took of my dog and two of his new dog park friends. The gravel surface gave me an opportunity to play with color and texture with a nod to impressionism.

Castle Landscape (2022), Ken Patterson

Sometimes my inspiration is a combination of an example I provided for a class, its rendition created by a student, and the challenge to recreate it in Paint 3D. I included it in my latest 'How To' post.

View from Cedar Butte (2022), Ken Patterson

Probably my favorite source of inspiration is nature. While I love doing portraits, I am learning to love painting landscapes, especially from photos. I plan to do more of these using some of my daughter's photos captured during her visits to Italy and adjacent countries. On our recent hike of the Cedar Butte Trail, I photographed the view from the top and painted it using Microsoft Paint 3D. Pretty good, considering I used a mouse on my desktop PC!

Milo Redwood & Studio

The work of other artists has inspired me in many ways. It inspires many of my blog posts. It's been fun for me to interview local artists and learn what inspires them. I often chat up artists when visiting their studios. I'll even engage with museum curators or volunteers to find out more about specific art exhibitions.

Son of Man (1963), René Magritte

Movies can be another source of inspiration and it's fun to watch for famous art being used in the background sets. I've blogged about that too, as far back as March 2020 with my Movie Art Cameos post. "The Thomas Crown Affair" uses the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a backdrop for its romantic art caper. In it, you will see works by Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pablo Picasso, and, of course, René Magritte's "The Son of Man".

The photography can also be pretty impressive. Many of my brother's paintings were done using professional photographic compositions created by my sister-in-law.

So, what inspires you? Living with intentional observation, reading, journaling, sketching, drawing, taking photographs, taking art classes, visiting museums, and experiencing nature will enrich your life and may make you a better artist. If nothing else, it will allow you to appreciate life and share it with others.