Crafting from nature's palette Exstbrin

Art can have endless forms, and nature presents us with inspiring phenomena. Nature is inseparable from us. The earth sustains our very life force. The diversity of wildlife inspires various artistic expressions. There has always been some connection between art and nature. Nature has patterns and rhythms and lacks a voice; that is art; it recreates the natural world and creates new ways to see it from a different perspective. Many prominent artists like Vincent Van Gogh and Monet glorified nature in their artworks. When put on a canvas, nature brings out the intricacy and beauty of both the inspiration and the thinking of the individual.

Nature is depicted in all art styles, from photorealism to abstraction. Many art movements were solely based on nature and the natural world, like tonalism, Plein air, Danube school, ecological art, naturalism, etc. Apart from acting as an inspiration, many of the mediums that people use to create their masterpieces, such as wood, charcoal, clay, graphite, and water, are all-natural products. Some artists use only natural materials; they are also known as environmental artists.

I have been interested in art since childhood. I remember buying my paints and brushes, watching some tutorial videos, and starting to explore. I wanted to find a way of painting to connect me and nature. It took me years to find my style, and now I am polishing it. I use different techniques and mediums, but always, my inspiration is emotions and nature. When I paint at my home, in my studio, I am surrounded by bamboo, flowers, rocks and a big pond with fish and turtles and a mongoose living in the bushes of the waterfall, and it is impossible not to feel inspired by the movement of the water, of the bright colours of koi fishes, of the movement of the leaves and rhythms of light giving a different perspective.

Whether I create paintings, photography, installations, or digital art, nature is a fragment that is always present, sometimes very prominent and sometimes in the shadows of my art. My art changes with the constant changing of the seasons. Four years back, I had a sudden inspiration to create my paint for my painting. It struck me when I had semi-dried the rose petals and then used them to create a reddish-brown colour. As I tried it more often, I fell in love with this technique, and I ended up keeping a journal. As the shades changed according to how much time I dried them. It slowly turned into my hobby.

I got more curious about what shades each flower would provide and, if dried, what shades could be played with and charcoal to get black pigments and ashes to get various shades of grey and brown. Mud and dirt gave me too many shades as well. This experimentation resulted in longer hours of work, but it made me closer to the painting, and various memories and places got connected quite literally to the painting that is still in progress. The textures created by these natural pigments are far too detailed and beautiful in my eyes. It is like a whole new world of various possibilities. I started collecting them so that I could use them to make pigments. The best part is that every pigment has its own story and adventure I went through to make it into one.

For me, I am not just inspired by nature. It is an integral part of the series 'Forgotten World' that I am working on. As this project is still in progress, I have yet to display my paintings and works to anyone except my parents. There were many initial difficulties I went through, like some pigments coming off, so I searched. There must be some artists that would be making their pigments. And I found Jonna Jinton, who is an artist, photographer, singer, and YouTuber who practices this as well. She became my idol. Her motto of being one with nature and setting no limits to art is what made me explore the endless possibilities of art.

Another nature artist who influenced my art style is  Andy Goldsworthy, a British sculptor who makes temporary landscape art installations. He comments on Earth's fragility with his installations. The zen concept of balancing rocks over each other also became one of my favourite hobbies. Artists find inspiration in the beauty of ordinary life. The little gifts given by nature that is always present, but people are too busy to see and appreciate them, and that's what precisely an artist does: look for these little gifts and sometimes add to them, creating a piece that other people feel connected to as well, as appreciate these gifts. I believe nature is a part of who we are.