I love the work of Jane Davies, and strongly agree with her approach. She was a featured artist on this blog back in 2015 (see here) and I quoted her on the blog here,  and also here. A quote from her complimenting my work features prominently on the home page of my artist’s website.

Recently, I perused her website again to see what she’s been up to, and I realized that it might be helpful to show a bunch of her newer work in a post on the blog, while articulating why it is so wonderful, to help you in your own work.

First of all, she is always just trying something. Her spirit of exploration and curiosity just sing in these. We feel her probing and investigating. Not surprisingly, that attitude brings discovery and an interesting outcome. We’d all be blessed if we would emulate that more.

Secondly, she’s a champion of contrast, which is really why we love these. How does that edge (or mark) contrast with this one? She pays attention not only to value contrast, but also to contrast of color saturation, contrast of size (and proportion) of shapes, contrast of busy areas vs. quiet areas, contrast of the visual weight of dense, close marks with the airiness of distance between marks. She even contrasts collage with not-collage.

Thirdly, she has cultivated a whole repertoire of mark making: with splashes, solids, scribbles, pattern, veiling, layering, and wandering line. She got there by paying attention over time to what differences in marks were needed for the contrast she desired, and by her “winging it” attitude as discussed in my first point above. Her variety of marks brings it all together, and makes these works fabulous.

If you do three these things, paying attention to them carefully, it will help your work enormously.

You also might be blessed catching a bit of her spirit and technique on her YouTube videos.

A lot of you ask me (repeatedly!) where to begin, or how to get unstuck, and the answer is for you to play! Try it out. Look for contrasts of all types. Create your own vocabulary of mark making.

And don’t play like Janes Davies does or like I do, but rather, like YOU do. Remember copying anything is not art (not copying the scene in front of you, nor someone else’s’ style.) Do your own work, and make what resonates with you alone. That level of transparency in your art will always have an appreciative audience.

Meanwhile, make a mess and try things out. Putter around with something until you like it. If you don’t like it yet, you are just not done yet, so return to the three pointers above, to see what your piece needs, and then courageously give that a go. Put on another layer. Change it up until you feel settled about it.  Through this process, you’ll hone in on work that feels both authentic and good.