Each Saturday when I am at my gallery, I spend time talking with my students and visitors about my art. Yes, there are many questions about what alcohol ink is… no, it is not drinking and painting… yes, it is a dye and alcohol compound.
I am often questioned about what inspires me to create many different types of art from abstract to representational, blooms to landscapes, and of course the mixed media Caity Girls.
So this is a picture of my current gallery wall of art. Let’s start here…
I am always inspired by nature. I grew up with Mom and Dad having huge gardens and have always had one of my own. I love the colors, shapes, textures of flowers and am in awe that each one, although the same kind, will be slightly different.
Of course, in my representational art, I do take a little liberty. I am also inspired by sights that just stop me in my tracks in awe. That was how I felt when I saw the sunrise from Airport Mesa in Sedona. The painting in the middle, top, is a slice of what I viewed. I needed to capture this as it was mesmerizing.
The abstracts beneath that were inspired by the silliest thing. I was weeding one day and watching an ant climb through the grass. And I wondered, what is the view from an ant’s perspective? This resulted in the 2 paintings made with inks and a credit card; an abstract of
what I thought things looked like from an ant’s view.
The abstract circle paintings were inspired about a poem about the circles of life and love.
Other Alcohol Ink Painting inspiration and some of the art that reflects them are:
- Hot pink clouds at sunrise
- The ocean and sound of waves crashing waves
- Hummingbirds feeding
- Butterflies flitting from flower to flower sometimes landing on my arm 🙂
- The rush of waterfalls
- The faces in orchids
- Cumulous clouds which look like mountains rising in the sky
- Classical Music like Mozart
- Wind chimes playing a tune in a gentle breeze
- Poetry and its rhythm
- The explosion of colors in the sky at sunset
- The smell of jasmine on a hot summer night
- The cardinal in the bird bath with wings flapping and water splashing
- The size of the redwood trees in Muir Forest
- San Francisco streets seemingly going vertical in the air
- The ragged, bouldered coast line of Maine
- Chicago Skyline at night
- Roosevelt Forest in Boulder, Co (Those mountains are majestic!)
- A babbling brook in the midst of a forest
- Indigo blue, turquoise and aqua waters of the gulf of Mexico
- Pure white sand at Siesta Key
- Canyons in Laguna Beach, CA
- The vast prairie in Central Texas
- Tulum Ruins (how were these ever built by hand?)
What inspires your art? Leave your comments below so we can all share our inspirations! I’d love to hear from you! Happy Inking!
