Artist Crush : Katie Jobling

Kelly Lianne February 16, 2017

I have a new artist crush! Well when I say new, I mean I've been following her art journey for the last couple of months now but she is right up there on my Top 3 favourite artists right now! Her name is Katie Jobling and she is a full-time artist based in the UK. She takes inspiration from every day life and focuses on painting in Oil, Acrylic, & Watercolour.

I am absolutely smitten with the collection of work she is creating currently! Dreamy pinks and expressive paint strokes are everything to me right now. I mentioned in my last post that I am in a full love affair with the colour pink and as I'm experimenting with abstract shapes and forms, I find myself drawn to Katie Jobling's work and just being lost in the gentle warmth of it!

Katie Jobling also has an extensive collection of floral paintings too! The loose impressionist marks look so gorgeous and I adore the way she utilises colour, so much so that I have started experimenting with my own abstract floral paintings! Painting like this is so calming, it's almost meditative. Trying to capture the essence of plants in paint form really is such a joyful experience, and I would recommend everyone to at least try it just to see what it is like.

If you like what you see then I encourage you to check out her blog, instagram & shop! She also has the most amazing YouTube channel, full of tutorials, speed paintings and more!

Find more of her work here! www.katiejobling.com www.instagram.com/katiejoblingart www.etsy.com/shop/katiejobling www.youtube.com/katiejobling

Elbow Deep in Magenta Paint

Kelly Lianne February 2, 2017

Guys, I have a confession to make.. I'm obsessed with pink at the moment. This may not seem all that important but for someone like me who has a strongly defined witchy aesthetic overflowing with dark tones, this is a bit unexpected! I have always had a strange relationship with the colour pink, I've had stages of loving it, rejecting it, and reclaiming it. This time it feels like it has ebbed back into my mind, perhaps because I'm all loved up with my husband in our first little home and Valentine's day is just around the corner? Regardless as to why it has made a return for me, it is firmly here and I am relishing in every delicious and delightful tone!

Be it baby pink, magenta or peach, I am besotted with them all! So of course that means they are firmly the focus of my recent paintings. I've been experimenting with devotional paintings for particular deities as part of my spiritual practice, I'll cover this topic in another post, but I've been devoting and dedicating my latest paintings to the Greek goddess of love, beauty & passion, Aphrodite. Trying to capture her essence in my abstract and expressionist paintings have brought me nothing but joy! I burn some honey & rose incense, listen to some songs by Marina and The Diamonds or some cute love songs, then just paint away! When I think of Aphrodite I reach straight for my various pinks, then I always finish it off with some iridescent white and gold. I think it really captures the feelings of being gentle, loving and beautiful, I also try to keep the movements flowing as if they were about to burst right off the paper.

Here's a progress shot of my latest painting, I was about half-way done here but thought it was truly a serendipitous moment when I noticed that my painting, with no prior-planning, had started to take on the appearance of an abstract vulva or rose! Unconsciously my strokes had combined in such a way that was effortlessly symbolic for Aphrodite! Once the painting was crowned with it's gold and iridescent accents the piece took on such a peaceful feeling and I was just so pleased with it! Here's a close up on how the gold and pinks mingle on the paper. Keep an eye out for a full view of the finished piece on my instagram!

The paints I used were Liquitex Professional Heavy Body Acrylic in Medium Magents, Light Portrait Pink, and Iridescent White. I also used Daler Rowney System 3 Heavy Body Acrylic in Titanium White, and Reeves Acrylic in Gold.

What colours are you currently obsessed with? Do you think there is a reason why you like them so much? I'd love to hear about it!

Dipping My Toe into the World of Digital Art

Kelly Lianne October 4, 2016

So I was very grateful to receive money from my family for my birthday this year, with this money and my savings I was able to finally purchase an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil! I've wanted to get these since I first saw them released and did some research to see how well it works for creating artwork. After checking out all the information I could find, I came to the conclusion that this would be a cheaper and more versatile option for me over the Wacom Cintiq, a drawing tablet that I've been lusting over for as long as I knew about Wacom as a company! I'm now three months into my iPad Pro art journey and I don't think I will go back to my old graphics tablet to draw ever again! My two favourite art apps are Procreate, an amazing art app that's incredibly versatile; and AstroPad, an app that turns the iPad into a graphics tablet so you can use it with your computer programs like Adobe Photoshop! Drawing in Procreate is so fluid and feels so natural that it makes Photoshop feel clunky to me! Although it costs about £4.49 to purchase, I have never regretted doing so as this app has helped me so much to develop as an artist and illustrator.

So do you fancy seeing some of the pieces I've made with my new tools? You've probably already seen them if you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, but I'm actually very proud of how these have come out, so I hope you like them!