Sunday scribbles #9: Develop your own style by just having fun.

Another week has passed, which means it's time for some new Sunday scribbles. On my phone I have a notepad in which I write down subjects for my Sunday scribbles. I am still waiting on the day where I have no idea what to write about and that I will grab this notepad for some inspiration. I thought this week I would have to use it, but yesterdays delivery gave me something to talk about. No worries, I won't talk about the joy of delivering my artwork to customers, allthough it is really fun to do! No, I am going to tell you something about how I am developping my own style, because this week I delivered two paintings made with this same technique. The technique which is the basis for these Sunday scribbles.

The whole business started out as a project. For a long time I have been following Callen Schaub. For people who don't know him, he's the senpai when it comes to making art using this kind of spin machine. So, as I was following him, I was totally amazed by the pieces of art he created. I fell in love with the vibrant colors and the way everything turned out. I wanted such a painting at home but I couldn't spend thousands of euros to buy one. Having done an engineering study, I was taught to come with a practical solution to every problem. What better way then to make such a painting myself? And so the idea was born. I didn't start right away, I was flirting with the idea. Something was starting to happen inside of me. If you have ever wanted to do something, have zero idea on how to start or how it would work out, you know what I'm meaning. It's that indescribable feeling of excitement and stress at the same time. Following the way I live, or at least try to live, I had to take action and just start. And so I did, little by little my small project was growing. At that point the project was still to make a painting for myself, boy had I no idea how quickly this would turn into a business. But hey, that's how life goes, very very unexpectedly.

Okay, so I had my setup: an arena in my room, with in the middle the famous spin machine. I also attached hooks to the ceiling, because like Callen does, I wanted to make beautiful arches consisting of various colors. More insights to this setup, including pictures, will be shared in future Sunday scribbles. I tried his famous technique, and it wasn't very easy. To spare you the trouble, I succeeded in making these kind of paintings but I wasn't as content as I thought I would be. So I started to play around. I have tried several techniques, which you can see in my webshop. Peope who were are the two vernissages at home know what I mean. There was no common thread amonst my paintings, only some of them were alike. For starting out this was beyond interesting. In recent posts I have shared how surprised I was to notice the difference in taste of friends, family and vernissage attendees. So I learned a lot in those first months starting out. What I am however starting to notice is that I am drawn to one specific technique which I totally adore. It's a technique I haven't seen before. It's a combination of two actions, which seperately I have already encountered online, but never combined. Okay the internet is big thing, and I will never be able to see everything. But I have been following some people who also made a spin machine and I have yet to see someone applying these two techniques together. Maybe I will just stop scrolling through socials and believe I am the only one doing it, what a wonderful imaginary world.

This week I made one of the paintings in the picture (most on the left, with rosé colors). When I started with this one, I wanted to try something else. So as always I entered my room, put the canvas on the spin machine and put my painting clothes on. I mixed and diluted various rose, gold, copper, black and white colors. When everything was prepared, I put the cups with paint on the floor and pressed "record" on my camera. It is at this point that I do my best not to wait and think. The thinking was done when I was picking the colors, after that it's mainly the flow of doing that guides my actions (in my head it sounds logical). Remember me saying I am drawn to a specific technique? Well, I noticed that automatically I was applying this technique, while I intended to do something totally different.

To conclude this short story: I started out wanting to make my very own Callen Schaub like painting, but I notice I am developping my own style by just exploring and having fun. This brings me back to another quote I have hung in my room when I was just a teen. Yeah, for peope who have been reading all past Sunday scribbles, you may have noticed I love myself some good quotes. This one I encountered as a teen and is a variation on a quote of Les Brown.

"Everyone is born as an individual, but too many people die as copies."

So please, dear friends, don't do your best trying to be someone else. It's okay to be inspired by what other people do, and use that to steer your life in certain directions. But remember that being your authentic self is worth more than words can describe. And how do you do that? Just listen to your gut and follow your intuition. Simple huh? ;-)