Stylised Flowers (A study of Gerda Lipski)

Over the past few months, YouTube has been 'my best friend' ... and the main reason for this was because my PlayStation 3 was the only device from which I access ANY internet. Although, if you don't mind me saying... should I never see another YouTube video in my life, I could live with that; as much as I love it, I am also completely sick to death of it.

Sometimes you do come across some hidden gems and one of those beautiful finds was the channel of Gerda Lipski, a brilliant artist from Germany who works with acrylics. Despite having to read subtitles; sometimes no translation meant I was flying blind but that didn't matter, I was mesmerised by her work.

She uses many different techniques that I was not aware of and therefore, she has expanded the horizon of my artistic journey and helped me reach another level in my own painting.

Some of her techniques include using lots of isopropyl alcohol and/or water splashes to lift colour from the page, creating beautiful background textures which she will then use to pull out interesting shapes to further enhance and build upon. She uses a lot of reductive methods and negative space painting to create some amazing pieces. I've included a link to her website gallery, should you like to have a look at her work.

Gerda Lipski - Painting / Monotype / Workshops

One of my biggest takeaways is that I have started working on paper rather than canvas. It was getting rather crowded in my studio and using paper means my artwork now takes up much less room, especially for work that I consider to be 'practice' pieces.

Anyhoo, I hope you enjoy my work and do give Gerda's page a quick visit. If you too are a 'budding artist' looking for some new techniques, I promise you'll be pleasantly surprised.