I’ve been experimenting with different intuitive and expressive art styles for a while recently. Having explored the joy of being “bad” at something and doing it anyway in the past, I’ve started leaning into it a lot.

I could spend a lot of time second-guessing myself, whether it’s worth creating if I’m not perfect at it, or whether it’s worth sharing. I think some pieces of work can be incredibly personal, and I don’t always want to share what I create. But sometimes, I create things that I’m pleasantly surprised with.

This piece is, as of yet, unnamed. I had a lot of fun creating it, though.

Exploring Abstract Art Styles

Although I’ve written about mindful doodling, or intuitive art in previous posts, I thought it would be nice to share my approach to painting at the moment.

Creative Process

I accidentally spilled some ink on a page whilst practicing calligraphy a few weeks ago, and decided to play around with it to avoid it being a wasted page. I was rather pleased with the style of the inkblot dragging, and thought I’d try to incorporate it into more work.

This piece was created by mixing some acrylic inks together to create slightly ‘off’ colours. I then moved the page around, allowing the ink to flow in different directions. I used different tools to drag the ink around before it dried.

These ink blots remind me a little of a Rorschach test. When I create in this way, I like to make the ink move without a pre-determined idea of what I’m creating. Once I’m happy with how it looks, I try to figure out what it might represents.

This A3 sketchbook piece ended up reminding me of trees – naturally – but the long lines made me think of a timeline. I tried to represent each season, and also the earth beneath the trees in the painting.

I really enjoyed the spring tree. The shape of it reminds me a little of a spriggan, or some kind of nymph-like creature. My favourite thing about this process is using my imagination and looking for what’s hidden in the mess!

Materials

The colours were created with a mixture of gouache, watercolour, pencils, oil pastels, acrylics, and poster paints. I like just using whatever feels right to create what I’m going for!

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