A question artists can find difficult to answer.
Here’s the long version:
I suppose I don’t call anywhere home. I may have spent half of my life living in in England, but it isn't home. I may be citizen to the US and the UK, but I am not exclusively either, nor neither. So, everywhere is a new place, be it passing through over a day or so, or residing in for a decade. Each new country brings newness and freshness. A list of all the things to do and see in the time allocated there. Living and traveling to different countries, seeing the architecture, tasting the food, feeling the climate, the weather change, walking the streets, watching the people are all things I savor. I bring these experiences back with me through Photography, and my memory. My traveling days are somewhat fewer and further between these days, due to family coming first. 4 day trips to some place in Europe are less frequent. These days, my recordings and reactions to a place are not so much as a traveler passing by, but a temporary resident. Living for months or a couple years in a place does change the way you see things, compared to visiting over a few days, or weeks. But the desire to record what I see in a visual, creative way is as fervent as ever. Is that not what art is: to (re)create one’s experience to the world with visually impacting, sensory tingling, striking concord with the viewer.
My fingers transcribe what my eyes see, and my soul feels. This is through Montage Photography Art. A visual arranging of photos of similar subject, or by place. A recollection of what I saw, and how I felt when in a place. Buildings, architectural details, food, markets, flowers and plants, colors, repetition, textures, landscape features. I don’t tend to include people, or figures in these pieces. I express the people I have seen and spoken to through paintings. I paint my portraits in oil on canvas, also drawings in pencil on paper. I paint people and animals in their surroundings, and sometimes void of their surroundings (it depends on the situation) in watercolor on paper. It is very important to me that I only use the photographs I have taken. If I want to draw or paint a jaguar, I best get myself on safari, or to a zoo. I don’t use other sources. With several different mediums, and seemingly different styles, the common theme is my reaction to where I am. And the short version:
I paint and draw animals and people from the photographs I've taken during my time visiting or living in a particular place. I create Montage Photography Art of the places I've visited or lived in. Thanks for stopping by! Evelyn