Refilling the Creative Resevoir- Vienna

Are you a creative person? If so you may find that at a certain point you begin running low on inspiration. At such times I find that a change of scenery helps to restock the catalogue of colours, textures, patterns, scenes, contrasts, smells, sounds, and combinations that I pull from everyday.

A cart full of tubes of paints hovers near my easel, a tray with boxes of watercolour and gouache accompany me throughout the day on the buffet in my diningroom- the most used room of the house. With each project I begin, I open the appropriate tubes or boxes, mixing colours onto the palette or canvas, reaching instinctively for my favourite colours. Raw siena, yellow ocher, english red, prussian blue, turquoise... these are the colours that always run out. the ones that I have doubles of in my supply cabinet. They are the ones that absolutely must be included in some combination in each piece I make.

Yet I love the effects of bright colours like coral, and magenta; may green, violet, and crimson. These colours bring pieces to life. they are vibrant and exciting. Finding ways to add them for contrast is always exciting and challenging.

After a certain amount of time spent in the studio, I find myself reverting to my colours and methods of choice. I, like so many creatives, need outside stimuli to refill the reservoir of creativity so heavily drawn upon.

At the beginning of June we took a short weekend trip to Vienna. It was so nice to have a change of scenery and be able to visit several museums and gardens. I love to look at artwork, filing away techniques and colour combinations, brushwork and style, as well as overall composition. Instinctively I bring this information back to the strudio, trying out things that were heretofore unknown or undiscovered in my own practise.

I am always impressed by the number of green spaces-

Here are a few details from the military museum:

The Belveder:

I was particularly impressed with the silver dress in this painting housed at the Albertina. It is so luminous that I took close up photos to study. The use of black white and grey is magnificent. I also love the way that it shines when contrasted with the shall in her hand.

The natural history museum contains a wealth of treasure. I paid special attention to the butterflies, a section of the minerals and the fossils. I find mineral patterns to be interesting. I would like to incorporate them into some of my backgrounds in the future.

The venus di milo-

Although I didn't do any urban sketching while there, I did take several photos of interesting architectural details.

And for the first time in a very long time I went to cafes! Oh how I have missed them.

The treasury offered a lot of inspiration. I included a painting of the imperial crown along side of a photo since I appreciate the way it has been captured without over emphasis on it's 'shininess'.