Mixing it up.

You bump into some great people when you’re an artist. But very soon the question - what kind of art do you do?

So how do we define our 'style' or write our bios or select a category in an art competition? 'Well, um, I paint using acrylics and collage and occasionally a bit of water colour, oh and charcoal and inks often get incorporated – maybe some pastel - and it’s usually abstract and sometimes quite graphic so I guess, er, I’m a mixed media abstract artist, sort of.' But why do we need a label? Creating art is surely one of the places where there should be no boundaries or barriers or people telling us what to do or not to do. ‘Here’s my work – you either love how it looks or you don’t’ – giving it a label won’t change your reaction to it. Ah, I hear you mutter, but some people are landscape artists or portrait artists surely? And yes, maybe that’s their passion or their strength or their business – but it shouldn’t be their cage. Being confident as an artist is hard enough. And worrying about what pigeon hole you have to squeeze into is not at all helpful.