“Let us see how high we can fly before the sun melts the wax in our wings.” Edward O. Wilson (from The Painters Keys)
Many artists are experimenters who constantly search for new ways to express themselves through their art. They look for new techniques. They try different media. Some even come up with non-traditional materials not generally thought of as art making material. Others look for new uses of traditional materials. Still others seek out new and different subject matter.
The UK’s Daily Mail has an article focused on artist Gerald Toni and his use of coffee and tea to paint beautiful life-like works of people and objects set in coffee houses. He uses various blends of coffee and tea from all over the world. The amazing range of color values in his paintings come from years of experimenting with the different coffee and tea blends.
Watercolorist Carrie Lin, as told by Margaret DeRitter of Michigan Live has developed a unique method in her paintings using different papers such as yupo and rice paper. For the rice paper work she uses a crinkle technique perfected with years of experimentation. In the yupo paintings, she applies ink, allowing it to slide over the slick surface of the paper. Lin then uses both techniques as the background for her beautiful abstract paintings.
If you are in the mood to try for something new and different, Amiria Robinson has outlined techniques, methods and materials to try out in a series of articles for Student Art Guide “Entitled Beyond the Brush.” You might try painting with a mop or maybe your feet. You could experiment by painting with a rag. How about turning things around and dipping the paper or canvas into the paint instead of the other way around? Robinson described a number of lively suggestions worth trying just for the fun of it.
In the process of experimenting, artists are forever evolving and changing the way people view their world. This constant evolution brings color and expression to our lives. I wonder what the next development in the art world will be. Artists are always bringing new things to life.