About this time last year, I presented a list of most popular spotlights of 2012 based on website visits. (Most Popular Spotlights of 2012) This list, and the one below, are based on Google Analytics stats. The spotlight with the most traffic is listed first.
If you have made it onto this list, Congratulations! I promote each and every artist spotlight here equally, sharing them at the same social networks. The extra traffic is often a result of the artist taking it on themselves to promote their spotlight (and others sharing as well). I have noticed some artists share their spotlights several times throughout the year. As a result, they have landed on this list!
Remember, if you are not on this top 10 list, you still have a chance of appearing here next year. Also, I will be continually promoting past spotlights with similar lists. When I do so, I always notify the featured artists.
A BIG THANK-YOU and warm wishes for all artists who have submitted their spotlights!!
- Genevieve Esson
2604 Visits
Congratulations Genevieve on reaching number one this year in pageviews!
”My artwork is inspired by the natural world, words, music, colors, shapes, mystery, dreams, line, the 80's retro art movement, medieval tapestries and illuminated manuscripts.This all includes: Nature, animals, music, people, art, dreams, movement, the wind, clouds, the moon, sea, trees, beauty, sounds, shapes, texture. Lots of different things.”
- Suzanne Southerton
2438 Visits
”I get in the mood by listening to music. I open the drawers and inspect my oils. I'll then take tubes out and start mixing colours (if I like what's happening on the palette it's normally very promising) and finally I lay my canvases out side-by-side and choose a paintbrush (the size and shape of the brush is really important btw!). Sometimes the canvases will have a turpsy wash in Sienna on them to distract from the expanse of white, but generally I already have an idea of how the brush will flow... in time with the music of course. It all sounds quite ritualistic but I need to get the first marks down correctly, or else I will end up scraping it all off again at the end of the evening. A triptych can take a few weeks to complete because I work and so painting is done in my spare time, unfortunately. One last thing, I tend to go for balance and beauty - harsh abstracts haven't featured... yet!”
- Iris Scott
1529 Visits
Iris Scott was first on this list last year with a view count of 2666. Here is an excerpt from her spotlight:
”Ideas for paintings are everywhere, in fact I essentially feel compelled to paint everything I see. Driving I see paintings, day dreaming I see paintings, sometimes I'll spot one in the house. It could be a vase of flowers, a wet windshield, and friend across from me, the view out the window. Paintings are just everywhere. When I go downstairs to the studio to paint it's a brief struggle deciding what gets to become the next oil painting. Once I've got a plan I sketch it out rapidly on the canvas and then paint for about 12 hours straight on average. I work in a very thick, straight-from-the-tube, style. Soft colors collide with other soft colors right in front of me. I don't mix paint anymore, instead I just buy more shades and colors. Colors lose a bit of their vibrancy when mixed together, I like to keep the colors as thick and raw as possible for a touchable oil paint texture. In the studio I can lose 12 hours fairly easily because time doesn't pass in the same way when I'm painting. I'm in a visual zone of consciousness that's somewhat impervious to the sense of time passing. Hours go by like minutes. I listen to great music and drink lots of coffee.”
- Llael McDonald
1432 Visits
“I work from photographs, so typically I will wander around a suburb that I like and take shots then go back to the studio, sort through them and pick out the images I like, then I sketch it onto a canvas and as I’m doing that I think about how a figure or figures could fit into the landscape and what story that person has to tell. I don't really use real people as my subjects. The figures often come out of my head. I think I see these people in real life and my brain files them away for a later use.
Once I’ve done the first wash of colours and covered the whole canvas I start to work with the light and shade. I put in the shade first and in the black or darkest areas I use a mix of burnt umber and ultramarine blue never a true black because I like to keep warmth in the shadows and true black oil paint is rather flat and uninteresting. I suppose I would do several thin layers of paint and on the last layer of paint and when all the detail of the landscape is put in I work on the highlighted areas and really make them pop.
The figure is always last, it's only when I get everything else the way I want it that I can put the people into my work and know that they will sit comfortably in the landscape. To finish I like to use a mat varnish on my work, again in several thin layers.”
- Sonali Kukreja
977 Visits
”Art to me is a way of life. It’s beautiful, intriguing, challenging, exciting, mysterious, joyful and simply wonderful.I was always drawn to art but I discovered my passion for art when I joined an art school to learn oil painting to enrich my learning experience. I further educated myself by painting and reading numerous books on drawing and painting.
My main goal is that my art should not only look appealing or entertaining, but inspires and enhances life physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. I want my art to be conversational pieces along with the beauty that they bring.”
- David Perl
469 Visits
”From college to work. Did 50 years in the creative side of advertising, print & TV as an award winning art director, creative director & commercial TV director. Retired and turned to art.
Have done all of the classic styles but when computers, digital photography and printing improved to the point that they have, there was no going back.
I basically manipulate and enhance my on-the fly photos so they're almost non-existent.”
- Paul Buford
458 Visits
”I come across an object/scene that intrigues me and study it, and study color and shape adjacencies to determine if it will be an appropriate layout as a painting. Sometimes I will trace the scene onto the paper to assure proportions are correct, because it would be terrible to ruin a painting before you even began and not know it until you are almost done. I use a lot of wet on wet to begin a piece, which gives a good "base" to work from. Later I add more rigid details to crisp up the image and create definition and "pop".”
- Mehriban Efendi
319 Visits
”I am an international award winning artist working in surrealistic style of work which is coming from not mind but from “a heart home” of a soul which has more knowledge than a human being.”
- James Bell
315 Visits
”I do live painting performances, so most of my current work is created in short spaces of time during an event or art exhibition. My tools are usually canvas or board, a kettle (for water), a few bowls for mixing paint, some big brushes and my collection of acrylic paints. I sometimes dance and paint to music, live bands can be a fantastic inspiration, although sometimes I prefer to paint to only the sound of the audience that surrounds me.”
- Scott Hile
314 Visits
”Mostly abstract or semi representational in my paintings, I backpack all over the southwest into some of the most remote places, only accessible by foot, to capture the wild places, and I also love spending the day shooting images in my studio of abstract images of everything and anything.”
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