Creativity makes us human. It makes us grow individually and collectively in our personal as well as business lives. If you like to grow your creativity, don’t isolate yourself at home – join the group and be part of the action. Not only your creative mind will expand, but you will meet like minded people and create long lasting friendships. I see it everyday in my studio.

In the recent years portraiture has become equally, if not more popular as landscapes. Have you ever asked yourself… “why is portraiture so popular?”

Once upon a time portraiture was only for those who had the means and standing to commission such tributes – only the rich and the influential could be immortalised. Today it is open to all. We can all outlive ourselves. We can all live forever on canvas. We can have our loved ones with us all the time.

Below are just few portraits in progress, created in my studio by students and upcoming artists. We will examine them again when they are finished. Most of these don’t have the light colours yet but they already look great and full of life!

So if it is open to all, why do we as artists and as viewers still find it so interesting?

We connect with each other through our faces. Yet if you ask your close friend what is the colour of your eyes, he or she will probably not know. How come? We do look into the other person’s eyes when we talk to them. Perhaps it is because we are never still or maybe because we are looking but not seeing.

I think that’s what it is! The artist is not just briefly looking when they are painting a portrait, they are studying the face, they are seeing every millimetre of it and even more, they look right through you past the likeness, they look inside of you and paint what is invisible – your personality, your mood, your character. Some artists don’t even care for the likeness and go right for the expressions and feelings.

And what about the viewers, why are they are so fascinated? I think they want to see what the artist sees. This is their time to finally pause and have a really good look at that face, familiar or not, see the shapes, count the wrinkles, admire the beauty or otherwise. And they don’t have to feel uneasy about it as it is a canvas. They can stare into that face on the canvas and be free to make comments.

And lets not forget about the sitters/subjects of our paintings. Well, what can I say, they are just brave people. In the past they could execute or imprison us, if we didn’t deliver what they liked, but NOT TODAY – today we have the upper hand and we can do whatever we want with their face.

Painting faces is not only a great learning process but it is addictive – once you start you want to do it again and again with better results.

What else was happening this week? We had a lovely and talented visitor from Germany. Lena spent two sessions with us and created a beautiful painting of Galvan’s Gorge, using palette knife for the first time ever.

Some lovely landscapes got finished by Dympna and Diane and there is an amazing creative story happening on Emilia’s canvas.

Why Art Matters