Inspired by Kristin Vestgard - a series featuring artists whose work inspires me to develop my own

My ‘Inspired By’ posts began as a way to explore what makes me tick as an artist, what I’m drawn to, what makes my heart sing, what I might want to try out in terms of marks or colour combinations or compositions. They are also a way for me to share the work of artists whose work I love. I don’t advocate copying other artists instead of making our own work, however inspiring they are to us, but I do believe that we can learn from each other on our solitary artist journeys. This website is dedicated to the philosophy that you have a significant and unique offering inside you, waiting to be released. I created a course to help you with this very thing, which you can find by clicking here. May you be inspired to bring forth what’s within you!

There is something very strange about the fact that I am consistently drawn to soft, smudgy, pastel coloured paintings recently, and yet am incapable of producing this style that I love in my own work. My paintings are repeatedly and insistently bright and bold and saturated.

Which is totally fine and perfect and colour is what I love (wait til you see my newly decorated flat!), but I do wonder why I crave this quietness but seem unable reproduce it. (Quite possibly related to the fact that I KNOW I need to be still and meditate but I consistently resist.)

Anyway, this is another example of such work; I just stumbled across Kristin Vestgard‘s oil paintings the other day and was immediately swooning over the softness and stillness of her work.

I also note she’s another artist who can paint the figure in a way that is entirely her own. She even makes me like – and want to paint! – still life!

On her website it says her degree show sold out. How fantastic! I don’t have a degree and don’t plan ever to get one, but I feel strangely excited on Kristin’s behalf about such a brilliant start to her career as a painter.

These paintings really inspire me to practice with softer, more muted colours and a more contemplative style. (I’ve eliminated the word ‘try’ from my personal dictionary; from now on I don’t try, I only practice. 🙂)