All posts tagged: contemporary

2017 / Katy Jade Dobson

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It is always exciting for me to reflect not only back on the previous year, but to look forwards at the opportunities and challenges and watching them become real.  Currently I am working on a new collection. Much like early last year, I am working hard on a full set of oil paintings that are interlinked, their concept is laced throughout the collection and their visuals are woven together. Working on a full set together is a piece of time that eventually reflects directly into a real, tangible ‘thing.’ I have often talked about pockets of time being mirrored in a painting, but a collection evokes both a memory of a period of time, or a feeling of de ja vu. This particular collection is exciting for me, and always, is an effort to push forward with my craft, honing, building on, and learning new skills. As well as an impending new collection, I have other very exciting things going on this year, which I will certainly be notifying anyone interested, though this website, my …

‘Flutter’ Limited Edition Prints

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A common question that I am asked is the distinction between ‘finishing or abandoning’ a painting (in terms of completing work) and which one applies to me?  There are two very different feelings when a painting is complete and is at most an unpredictable part of the process for me. Occasionally my idea is crystal clear enough to see when the finished version is in sight, or be unable to stop until I meet this mark in my mind. This is finishing the work that you set out with a cause, process and visual in mind. Abandoning the painting is a very different but equally as satisfying feeling, in when you reach a stage in the work where you feel it is right to stop. For whatever reason, it may be that the balance is right and anything more could be overworking it. Maybe you feel that what you are trying to put across has been successful and in going further could potentially spoil that. A number of reasons, even just that it ‘feels’ right to …

Micheal Zavros / Inspiration

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Just a quick internet search can tell you that there is no end to the amount of talented artists in the world. Instagram in particular has been great for unearthing these exquisitely talented humans who happen to document their creations and I love to ‘follow’ them. There is an infinite amount of inspiration that you can gain from looking at and enjoying the work of others, without copying/plagiarising. (A post about this topic in particular to be uploaded soon..) Taking inspiration isn’t about stealing, or at least shouldn’t be! It is noting the feeling you get when you see a particular piece of art and translating that into your own work in your own way. A painting might have an electric energy with movement that leaps out at you. Another might have solemn or moody overtones that gave you a sense of atmosphere when you looked at it. It is more often than not the ‘vibe’ of the painting that you most likely enjoyed. Inspiration should be transferring that feeling/vibe/energy in your own way, to …

Second Collection of Original Oil Paintings with Wishbone Publishing / Katy Jade Dobson

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I have been working recently on my second collection with Wishbone Publishing, a collection that I am incredibly   excited about. It has been a lot of fun to work on and showcases a lot of what I have learnt in the last few years as a professional artist. But above that I have injected mainly what I enjoy within this collection, the learning curve is palpable in the application and I love that it is raw and exposed in these original oil paintings. My work as always is selfishly about my process, my work thrives when my heart is fully engaged and I do not stop until the atmosphere is intimate and blatant. The success of my last collection was immensely unexpected and I am incredibly grateful to anyone who has supported my work over the last couple of years as I have found my feet. What I took from working solely on a full body of work is that your headspace during this period of creating can be temporary and down to circumstance. The …

Inspirations and Influences for Paintings – Working on my new collection.

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I have been working on a new collection lately,  with an idea in mind that I wanted to be incredibly specific with… Without giving too much away,  I wanted to write about some of my influences in terms of colour and composition for my latest collection that I am currently working on with an insight into my favourite artists and images that have always inspired me. (Almost like a mood board of certain traits and aspects for this upcoming series of oil paintings.) Starting with colour and my favourite artist Odilon Redon – I learnt of Redon whilst working on a project at college where I imitated some of his works in oil pastels, his abstract tendencies and backgrounds specifically have been one of the most consistant inspirations for my work and hugely in mind when painting recently. I studied his cleverly positioned colour and admired how they looked so spontaneous. It wasn’t until learning this practice in oil paints and in my own style that I found that using a lot of colour all at once in …

View my first collection with Wishbone Publishing here!!!

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The Spectrum Collection in full! My first collection with Wishbone Publishing is now available to view, with a handful of originals selling before the release and now the availability of a selection of limited editions. 10% of the sales from this collection will be donated to the Born Free charity, I am incredibly proud to have Born Free endorse this collection and to be included on the Certificates of Authenticity received on purchase. If you have enjoyed my previous work then hopefully the Spectrum Collection will appeal to you with a chromatic explosion of my favourite jewel toned colours to embellish a variety of wildlife species, all regal, proud and spectacular in their own rights. My collection is a celebration of the beauty and abundance in nature and a practice of my painting style that is both intricate and loose, serene and chaotic. Also an emalgimation of traditional draft work oil painting, with abstract colour use and impasto tendancies. I hope you enjoy them! Enquire with Wishbone Publishing or Eyeball Gallery about the availability and …

First Collection with Wishbone Publishing released tomorrow!

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I am incredibly excited that tomorrow my first collection with Wishbone Publishing is released! I have worked incredibly hard on the pieces that will be available as a set of originals, and limited edition prints. Some originals have already sold with the Cloud Gallery at Buy Art Fair in Manchester where I had a couple of pieces up for a first look. The paintings are all oil on wood panel where I have worked hard to focus on attentional to detail juxtaposed with negative space, embellishments and an abundance of kaleidoscopic colours! It is a collection where my love for wildlife meets my traditional draftsman practice, and my obsession with opulent jewel toned colour bursts. I have mentioned numerous times how difficult it has been to not post updates on the progress of my paintings, for the past 12 months I have posted every development I had recorded of my work, and whilst creating some of my best work yet I had not shown as much as a close up of a  piece in this collection. …

Artist Materials – Hog bristle brushes for oil paintings

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When I began painting, buying the paints initially was a costly job for me. I had to supply myself with the basic primary colours to set off my collection that I was to build up as I went along, mixing my own colours until I could afford to buy more. Brushes however were not important at all, I would apply the paint with my fingers if I needed to. (And still regularly do…) Although I sometimes buy more expensive brushes for purpose marks, I tend to buy value packs so I am always stocked up on brushes of all sizes and styles. I do this because brushes don’t last me long at all, especially expensive ones. Being eager to use them (since I paint every day, its the equivalent of getting a new computer mouse at the office for me) they often become raggedy and unusable after around 3 weeks. I might often find myself working slightly more gentle in order to preserve them, but sometimes by subjects are void of a certain boldness I enjoy in …

New Work!

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I have a lot of new work on the go! A series of elegant and detailed wildlife work with areas of serene calm. Here are a few examples of the backgrounds of these paintings (looking for a more dreamy and opulent style)