How do artists create a unique style, perspective, focus and identity that is reflected in their work ?
When you're looking at an artwork, whether in a gallery, museum or flipping through a book, can you make an educated guess on who the artist is? Often it's the subject matter or style that identifies the individual. Their focus is unique.
Helen Trevisiol Duff speaks to Amanda Gosse and Stella Tooth at Skylark Galleries about how they found their focus, perspective, voice and what it means to them.
Every artist has their own voice and their own way of creating their perspective, focus and vision. This artistic focus is always evolving through discovery, repetition, searching, practice and passion.
Authenticity, authentication and provenance are all important as artists become more established and well known. Their focus and subject matter is their own individual choice.
Many artists start off like myself with a formal art education in classical drawing and painting methods and having studied at degree level go on to acquire many skills over many different mediums, before homing in to a consistent practice. This requires time, patience and an authentic practice focusing on what is important to them either in method, subject matter or both. Other artists are self taught and home in on their skills through experimentation and practice. There's no right or wrong in finding your artistic voice and focus as long as it's authentic.
Some artists combine other employment alongside their practice before getting to a stage where they make the leap into a full time practice and become professional.Their focus on what they are interested in creating has no relevance to whether they are spending every waking hour on the project or less. Being identifiable from your work is important and finding their passion and individuality is paramount. Continually working within either their subject matter, medium or theme, results in their focus and voice getting louder.
I asked Amanda Gosse how she found her focus.
Red browed finch by Amanda Gosse £50
Born in Australia and brought up in SE England, Amanda’s love of art began when she was a child, with many hours spent drawing in a disused caravan on her family's farm. She loved watching her mother, also an artist,creating sketches and paintings, working with watercolours and pastels – creativity was always encouraged at home and there was no shortage of inspiration from wildlife and nature. In the late 1980s, Amanda’s mother and her partner converted their oast house into an art gallery where local artists and sculptors showed their work. She was surrounded by artists and creativity.
Cockerel by Amanda Gosse £50
Amanda’s love of birds (which is the subject matter of much of her work) began as a child. Her mother, a member of the RSPB, signed her up as a member of the YOC. As a young girl Amanda used to love leafing through the Reader’s Digest Book of British Birds and she later learned that there were bird enthusiasts on the Australian side of her family too — most exciting of all was finding a copy of Popular British Ornithology, published in 1853, written and illustrated by naturalist Philip Henry Gosse, grandfather of artist Sylvia Gosse, to whom Amanda is proudly related.
