How I convey emotion within my work

It all begins with finding inspiration on pexels a copyright free photography community where I have some of my own photos

My most popular photo from a Paris trip with 124k views and 231 downloads, I wonder what they used the photo for? https://www.pexels.com/photo/aerial-shot-of-people-waiting-in-line-4630664/

I often search those of a longing look, looking upwards. I feel as humans hope is the emotion felt most often. This emotion seen as positive, can be negative in the sense of hoping for more, striving for more, and never really living in the present. I love portraits and conveying emotion in the eyes. As an expressionist artist I don’t paint like for like. I attempt to use the photo of the model’s emotion as a catalyst for my own. I try to have a sense of not belonging, and looking outward, accepting difference, and hope. I also paint the world around me, showing how I see the world. The emotion is within the way I put down the paint.

Let me explain. Quite often I feel disenchanted and disillusioned with life, it is not that I don’t enjoy life but when you’ve had childhood illness remove you from society, and then placed back in several years later. You can’t help wonder what it is all about and how we are all cogs in the system. It is loving the simple pleasures of life, friends, family, walking my dog, it doesn’t have to be one big adventure all the time like it was in my 20s. My work speaks to people, those who connect. Every so often it will really move someone and they’ll see more than the sum of its parts. They’ll recognise my soul and emotion and intent upon the canvas. Some just see a painting but those who really fall in love with my work see something more.

When I paint I’m not thinking of painting, or techniques or layers, while there is an element of that. The main focus is upon the emotion, the structural nature of the face and feeling into the subject, what they're feeling, what I am feeling, I am attempting to paint beyond the reference photo. It’s more like sculpture for me, feeling round the 2D object of the canvas within a 3D space of the model before it was a photograph. I don’t paint the technique of painting, I feel the shape and structure in an intuitive way.

It is tricky to explain.

I use music in the right tempo for that particular painting; finding music that matches the mood of the piece. I then lose myself within the process of minor course corrections, following the next correction I spot and the next as the painting builds.

I find life can be this struggle but to tap into the world of the painting, that is my happy place. I prefer to create than fully be in reality. That being said a lot of my inspiration does come from walking my dog, or before I had him other life moments. I am present but its all part of the routine. stare into the void, have coffee, eat something, feed Ralph, walk, lunch, art, stare into void, rest, walk, dinner, feed Ralph. While I have enjoyed exploring new places and seeing the world, it is the excitement of creating art from that experience. I don’t know, how those who are not artists, can go about living, without creating something from those experiences. Cafes I always have a sketchbook on me even if I don’t use it, I worry if I hadn’t some sort of writing/drawing tool and a pad..

I love to capture movement, and draw those in conversation at cafes, and I would love to paint and draw dancers as they move through space on the stage. I have done so form photos but of course those are static.

Capturing movement, fluidity and emotion, I tend to gravitate towards certain photos and subjects but try to branch out best I can, it is like this umbrella of creativity, starts with a photographers vision which spring boards more paintings. I do however love to create my own photos, as well as digital collages to help make the idea, I find I cant create without some sort of reference. I have begun to stitch several together and digitally manipulate them into what I need, then alter it even further within the painting process. You can come up with some crazy compositions this way.

I know not everyone will like my art but I have to paint for my own sanity and connection to life. I know there are others who do like my work, even if its been tricky to believe at times, when you’ve created the thing you’re so involved with the process it can be difficult to know how others view it.

I am always learning and I am looking forward to implicating more subtle hues into the whites of the eyes in future, with looking up better ways to have that contrast, darks and lights and the relationship to one another is something I still struggle with but we dont just arrive and congratulations you are now an artist, the learning never truly stops.

Do people enjoy faces on their wall, or do they wonder if it’s someone they know? I know many portrait painters I would love to own an original of theirs, and they work in portraits entirely. So it must be possible, but then what elements can I include to make it fun and unique ? I don’t stick to one niche but stylised portraits I love. That is something I am always exploring and being me I can’t just stick to any one subject. Emotion is in the eyes, so of course landscapes the emotion is more within the application of the paint, throwing it at the canvas, drips and scraps. Rather than the execution of a face. It is all emotion but quite different approaches.

Art allows me to be present and in the flow, focusing on the one activity and therefore, I am sure it channels into some other dimension and there are things we can’t explain. How does emotion seem to enter into the brushstrokes themselves, an energetic exchange rather than simply conveyed via technique?

Does the emotion come across? works such as “the cost of conformity” I feel archive this well. Which of my work speaks the most emotion and venerability to you ? I would love to know within the comments.