Changing Directions

When I painted portraits they were done in a realistic style. When I painted flowers I experimented and changed my style a little. Since I've been doing mainly landscapes and cafe scenes for awhile my style and my work has become more impressionistic. Now I am ready to change my painting style once again and experiment. I have been drawn to other artist's work that is mainly graphic and bold in nature. This attraction could be because of my printing and graphics background. At any rate, I have decided to play around and paint in a more deliberately graphic way. I have posted one of the last paintings I did for the shop that displayed my work. It was a more graphic style and I want to explore that more. Who knows? It may turn out to be a better way for me to approach painting. It's not unusual for painters to change their painting styles. Not to directly compare myself to Picasso, but he started out very "realistic" and went through a "blue period" a "rose period" and ended up with "cubism." It is very typical of artists to do something one way for a certain length of time and develop some expertise in that method and then move on to other things. I think an artist is usually not only perfecting his or her skills but tries to push the envelope and do something different. Today is the day that I start doing that something different. I have gotten reverence photos and gone through the mental process of how to go about changing to a more graphic style. I have even read magazine articles written by artists who take a more graphic approach to painting. I have the canvas and paints and will start this experiment today. I don't expect to have a masterpiece with the first attempt but am excited to be taking my art in a new direction. This might have never happened if the shops who sell my art were staying open. The change was for the best. I'm going in a different direction.