How the weather makes you a better artist.
This week's topic continues to focus on last month's visit to Bamburgh beach. There's plenty of sand for sandcastles. Storms appear without warning. The sea is icy cold and always changing colour. Beaches are perfect haunts for artists in search of inspiration.
You probably won't be building sandcastles.
Why you won't be building sandcastles.
The minute I arrived at Bamburgh beach, I arrived with an Olympus PEN E-PL1 camera. There was a blue sky. It was hard to look for inspiration when you have a blue sky. You won't find much variety in aquamarine blue. I took photographs of seaweed. Hues of green gives you a lot to work from. A few minutes later, the weather changed. Black clouds showed. Grey clouds. White clouds. A North Sea wind blasted across the sand. An amazing tour de force. Weather conditions changed in a matter of minutes. Now I had my inspiration and I could take pictures that mattered.
Why do weather pictures make us better artists?
Put it this way: if you presented a series of photographs of a blue sky to the viewer, they would probably look at them and say nothing. Present a series of pictures of storm clouds with an amalgamation of different greys, whites and blacks, you will have the viewer hooked. Put it another way: show the blue sky pictures to an infant child, they will unashamedly declare they are boring. When that happens, this is a sure indicator that your art work is poor. Show them the storm pictures and the same child will think they are magical. When that happens, you've succeeded as an artist. You're the better artist for braving the wind and capturing the unpredictability and hidden danger that lurks on beaches, other than sharks, crabs and quicksand. You have yourself a market for your work. You may find that your train fare and bills for the accomodation paid for themselves? Maybe you'll get an agent who hears about you and your work through word of mouth. A gallery show might follow. All because you decided to photograph a couple of storm clouds.
Posted in Miscellaneous on June 26th, 2011.
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