Thursday, November 11, 2010

Kickin' It Old School

 You Can Go Back
16x20"
acrylic on canvas
(created en plein air)
© Nicki Ault, 2009 
sold

About two weeks ago I received an email from Judy Adamson, an artist in Wales, who writes an informative blog regarding topics in art and design. She had recently been contemplating why some artists prefer to stick with traditional methods of producing art as opposed to using digital tools. She approached seven traditional artists to give their reasons why they have not made the change and I was one of them. To see the article and the responses click here.

To be honest, I have not given digital art much thought. I don't have a great program to use and in many ways I feel I am just scratching the surface with paint- especially in oils. Maybe the time will come when I want to dabble digitally- I'm certainly not against it and believe it is growing and growing as a strong and distinct art in it's own right, especially with all of the amazing, rapid advances in technology. I would enjoy the opportunity to sit with a digital artist to see their process and watch how they create. It would be quite fascinating to me.

For now in my own practice, however, I'm going to keep kickin' it old school!

Thanks to Judy for including me in this interesting discussion. I sent her the above image of a painting I did last year to include with my part of the article. (Click here for the original post that went with this painting- turns out it was one of the first few posts I ever made to my blog and fun for me to look back on).

10 comments:

Kim Rempel said...

Well painted Nicki! The water ripples and light reflections just dance. Beautiful!

Barbara Muir said...

Hi NIcki,

You do kick it, but not old school. Old school is Vermeer, but he's timeless. I know our worlds are meshing more and more with technology, but in reality they are two different worlds. Your art is unique.
Let's all go to Florence together and have this
conversation surrounded by Michelangelos, and Botticellis. Wouldn't that be fun?

XOBarbara

Nicki said...

Thank you Kim, one of my favorite things is painting reflections.



Barbara, thank you... and I would love to go to Florence and continue the conversation! Anytime!

XO Nicki

-Don said...

I'm going to add my two-cents to your digital/fine art discussion. I use both daily. In fact, there are very few of my works from the past few years that don't use both. Most of my compositions and color schemes are figured out in Photoshop before I ever go to canvas anymore. But, I still love the feel of using a brush and paint. So, I don't send my final work out as a digital print, I send it out as an acrylic painting. In conclusion, I'd say that digital to me is another tool just like my palette knife or my brush.

I also do graphic design and illustration as a profession. Very few of my graphic designs are completed without some sort of 'old school' influence - whether it be pencil, pen, brush or paint. I'm a firm believer that my fine art informs my graphic work and vice versa.

Now, about "You Can Go Back"... It's an outstanding piece. I actually have to squint when I look at the bright sky reflections. You're 'kickin' it old school, sister!

-Don

Melanie Statnick said...

hi there!
What a wonderful painting. I realy like the reflectons

Nicki said...

Hi Don,

You really are a Renaissance Man! You can do it all! I thought of you as I wrote my blurb. I am not techno savvy, which isn't to say that I don't wish that I was. I remembered you saying before that you work a lot of things out with photo-shop and that fascinates me. I would like to learn and maybe someday I will, but I can't foresee the day that my actual art will be done digitally. I really like to get my hands dirty, so-to-speak.

Glad you like this one. I think it is one of my personal favorites and I love the memory of being outside at Spruce River painting it. The lady that taught my boys Preschool owns it which also makes me happy.

Take care,

Nicki


Hi Melanie, nice to hear from you. Thank you so much... I do love painting reflections.

Nicki

Artist said...

love the waves and your reflections are very lively!

Nicki said...

Hi Artist,

Thanks! It makes me so happy to paint reflections... I think I might do a new one next week at the studio!

Röschen rot said...

great picture, great capture and technique. Congratulations!

Nicki said...

Thank you, Roschen rot, for your kind comments on this painting and for taking the time to look at my blog. I'm so glad you found something you liked.

Nicki