Finding the best subject matter
Sometimes when we want to make art, we get stuck when it comes to finding a subject matter. What should I make it about? The art works we are most impressed with can have such elevated status that our sights move to completely unrealistic levels. Should my art work say something deep and meaningful? How can I bring together all the ideas I have, or narrow them down?
What I’ve come to realise is that the best subject matter is right before me; it’s something I have experienced and which I know, or can get to know, intimately. For example, the unfolding seasons, so strange and wondrous to me especially in the first year of living in the northern hemisphere, have provided ideal subject matter. This could mean the change in human activity such as the effect of Winter on the streetscape; the empty sidewalks, the opening up of chalets selling mulled wine and hot chocolate, the heavy pruning of trees on the avenues. It could also mean the changing colours of the landscape: from bright green, to orange, yellow, brown, grey. In my artmaking practice, I narrowed it down to things I could observe closely in my everyday life; the changing shapes, textures and colours of buds on plants that are in my garden and which I’ve not noticed where I’m from in Australia: magnolias, lilacs, cherries, apples and chestnuts. I chose to paint from life, to capture the buds at different stages of growth. It was fascinating watching the force of nature transforming the plants and the energy used to push something amazing from a bud which, on a fleeting glance, looks like it’s doing nothing.
By using our own experience and environment as subject matter, we are putting forward our own unique interpretation and freeing ourselves from the burden of agonising over the subject matter. Then we can explore it using the media of choice more effectively.
Making an artwork ‘work’ does involve synthesising some knowledge about the elements of art and composition, and maybe a kick start or tips on using media. And that’s where some people might need a little bit of help. One of the things I love about teaching art is challenging people’s perceptions of their ‘artistic abilities’ or their ‘creativity’. I hope that in my classes I can help people to love art making and feel confident about their interpretations of their experience and environment.