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!

In keeping with the theme of my re-emerging love for figurative art, have a look at these paintings by Jylian Agustlin.

She is a Californian artist and the images I’ve chosen here do not do justice to the breadth of her talent.

She can do landscapes, stitched images, figurative, abstract and architectural work; she’s even done a series on the Fibonacci mathematical theories. Diverse, to say the least!

What I love about this, apart from getting to look at beautiful art, is that seeing an artist’s website covering such a broad range is one of those things that makes me feel I have ‘permission’ to embrace diversity in my own work. I’m still learning on the giving myself permission thing, so I love it quite a lot when I find someone else to do it for me. 🙂

From her website we learn:

Jylian uniquely combines the effects of modern technology with traditional techniques. While painting in acrylic and oil paints, her artwork often conveys the same complex layered effects possible in computer programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Gustlin experiments with a variety of materials to discover their effects. Working with two-part epoxy resin, oil and acrylic paints, charcoal, wax, gold leaf, pastel and graphite on board, Gustlin draws, paints, scratches on her surfaces.

I really love this one below; the simplicity and beauty of the figure, its wings and position on the piece, the different elements used, the text, the colours, everything:

I’ve been very busy enjoying the Indian Summer that suddenly arrived and done no painting for what must be coming up for three weeks now, which is very unsual for me.  It bothers me not one tiny bit! But looking at these luscious, textural, colourful paintings is helping me ease back in. Or it will do. At some point.