I have no STYLE

"Look what I found"  pastel on Wallis 

I was recently asked by someone "how do I develop my own style?".  I feel this is worth thinking about for a few minutes.

I once went to an exhibition where someone had clearly forced a style to their work. Everything they produced was painted with a herringbone pattern. Every piece looked like fabric! What on earth is the point of that, I thought? Just style for the sake of it.

I also watched another tutor on a painting holiday, I arrived on his last day. He took his students out into the fields, and they watched him paint. Then, they had to paint exactly what he had painted, in exactly the same way. ......???? Apparently they had done this every day. I guess this might help a beginner to familiarise themselves with techniques, but I am not convinced it will necessarily help anyone develop their own approach. 

I  recommend to my students to take a little look around the internet at the works of other artists. sketches, and Paintings.  I ask them to see if they can isolate what it is about the works they find that makes the work recognisable from each artist. They have reported back similarities of mark-making or brushwork; they also found similarities of intention - a search for a particular quality of light, or repetition of particular subject matter.  I have included, in this blog, some of my "kids on the beach" pictures.  I think the similarities are fairly obvious.  

"View of the Sea"
pastel on Wallis paper

There is absolutely no need to go "searching" for a particular style. Just keep painting, pursue your personal interests in terms of subject, you DO have a certain style all ready, and the fact that you cannot see it is actually unimportant. In fact, if you try to "find" a style, you will simply stop working naturally, your work will run the risk of looking contrived and forced. You have to stop worrying about style and just do what you do to the best of your ability. It is VITAL to keep reading, keep learning, and put that learning into practice, THAT is more important than looking for "style".

Having said that.......your own style will automatically be more visible if you tackle a SERIES.  When you do this, you will find that each painting or sketch you make will have recognisable attributes that make it obvious they were painted or drawn by the same person. I have always found this to be the case. Here are some ideas for a series :

STILL LIFE with flowers, fruits, jugs and bowls (or other objects of a similar nature). Change the flowers but keep using the same objects in different set-ups. Or use something specific, like an oil lamp, or a favourite pot, or a certain fruit,   which appears in each of, say, six images.

STILL LIFE with particular objects that have some significance for you.  Could be anything.  Eggs.  Marbles.  Glass.  Feathers. Musical instruments.  You name it, the world is your oyster.  Oysters.......there's an idea.........

LANDSCAPE - find a particular location that you enjoy, simply move your head in one direction or the other, there will be loads of different compositions if you do this, but all will have similarities because of the similarities in the location.

PAINT THE SAME SCENE at different times of day.

Try street scenes

Try Cafe scenes

Try beach scenes.

paint or sketch birds, or animals, if you like them.

Whatever your choice, do at least six of each. 

Have fun. Don't think about style. It is there, even if you cannot see it yourself.

"Sisters on the rocks"  Pastel on Wallis paper.

Incidentally, in case anyone was wondering, the ballet dancer image that I offered for sale at the end of my last blog post, has in fact been sold and is on its way to a new home now!  Watch this space for more.