Lessons to Be Learned.

Summer Scent Rose Collection

It has been a full and busy week already and yet it is only Tuesday!  I am working on new collections, preparing for workshops and working my way through a full inbox of email. I am getting some wonderful messages that really make me sit back and smile and I desperately want to meet the people behind them.The internet does bring us all so much closer together and it is really special when you think that years ago we hadn't a clue what was happening anywhere else in the world.

 Having said that I recieved some really wonderful messages from friends living in Dubai letting me know an artist was demonstrating there from UK. An advertisement for the event apparently showed a painting of a rose which looked similar to one of my paintings from a few years ago. I read each message with a smile and felt really touched that anyone could remember my work from that time.

We all paint roses in so many ways. In fact we all paint every subject in so many ways with so many different interpretations. And roses are roses after all. I am influenced by Madame Blanche Odin and have yet to master roses as she did in watercolour. Each year I try again to get to her level of expertise but I am still a long way off. But when I looked at the email attachments the rose in question is similar to a composition of mine but it should be. The artist has been to me on many occasions and watched me painting these roses in person. But many artists paint roses, not just me.

There are several lessons to be learned from this experience.

1) The world is a very small place and no matter where you are or what you do you are observed.

2) If you are teaching it is always wise to use your own material or at least mention any artists who inspired you openly and honestly. If they have. With the internet as it is we do all have access to international artists work that once we would not have had.

3) Try to be unique when you demonstrate.

4) Keep work in advertising material  to that which cannot be misinterpreted as another artists painting.

Thank you very much for the emails. I am learning as I grow as an artist from those who are far more advanced in their journey than I.  Another point, well worth remembering. New artists who follow in footsteps of others actually compliment their teaching skills which is why we teach in the first place. 

To inspire

I follow previous masters and  eagerly try to learn still. I hope I always will.

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