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!

New art love! I am currently swooning over Raina Gentry‘s beautifully subtle, layered paintings. She achieves a softness and a kind of strong delicacy that at the moment I only dream about.

Raina is a California born, but I think Arizona based artist, with a background in printmaking as well as painting, which you can clearly see in her work.

I love her colours, the mix of rough textures and tiny details, the circles and figures, the lightness of touch.

There is something reminiscent of Flora Bowley in her work, with more detail.

In fact her bio talks about her process and it’s clear from that {if it isn’t already!} why I am drawn to her work.

“Each piece evolving naturally and intuitively, with little structure or expectation about the final outcome. Through this organic approach to artmaking, Raina believes that she taps into, and expresses universal themes that many people can identify with. Through complex layering of various media, with a focus on the human form, and nature, she creates meaningful, evocative works that draw her viewers in.”

You can buy prints of these and many many more of her beautiful paintings through her website; I certainly have my eye on one or two…

And in the meantime I’m feasting my eyes for inspiration and with a kind of wistfulness. I dream of achieving this level of skill, this rich symbolism and confidence. Raina’s paintings make me want to work harder at developing my own work, to push it further and allow more to come through.