Working in Isolation: Oil Painter Artist Finds Freedom to Explore Mediums During Lockdown

Most artists work in relative isolation.  Our collective art practices and the creative process demands it.  It goes against the human urge to congregate and socialize.  Still, we persevere as the 'call to create' nudges us.  We then deliberately make space - intellectually, emotionally and physically. We move forward quietly, with the intention and faith in the process.

Never have we been more aware of isolation than time spent in this Corona Virus pandemic environment. It is not our choice, but as artists we are familiar and in some ways ahead of the game over our fellow citizens by our familiarity and relative comfort with the loneliness of self -containment.  

San Diego artist Melanie Taylor’s landscape oil paintings are an interpretation of observations and creation of fictions. Inspired by places experienced and known, the lockdown has given her an opportunity to experiment with the immediacy of watercolors.

Before the Pandemic:

"Before", oil on canvas, 20"x16", 2020

During the Pandemic:

"After", oil on canvas, 54"x48", 2020

1) How has your work shifted during the pandemic? Has it been a change in the process of your creating art? The mediums you use? The themes or concepts you are thinking about?

During the lockdown I was unable to go to my studio which is a 10 minute drive from my home. I usually paint with oils and can be pretty messy, so having a separate dedicated work space is a necessity. I shut the studio down in March and took watercolors, drawing equipment, papers and sketchbooks home where I set up a small table work area. Focusing on drawing and watercolor proved to be liberating and informative. I was able to complete a watercolor painting or drawing in one session, as opposed to multiple layers/days of an oil painting. I also revisited images and notes from older sketchbooks and discovered new connections. The light and transparency in the watercolors have influenced my oil paintings, a direction I might not have taken so readily had it not been for the focus within limited parameters.

2) What have you discovered about yourself as an artist during this pandemic?  

Working on a small scale made me consider mark making in the images more thoughtfully: it became a time of introspection and retrospection. The pandemic reinforced my interest in the environment and the importance of the human race reconciling with nature. I also discovered that making the effort to create, having that discipline, is very important to my state of mind! 

3) What have been your biggest challenges working in isolation?      Surprises? 

Even though painting (for me) is a solitary activity, I found being isolated from fellow artists and not being able to visit a museum or gallery challenging on a professional level. Not being able to see family and friends living abroad has also been a huge challenge, and this motivated me to draw inspiration from places and landscapes that I miss. What surprised me was the freedom I found in the work process during lockdown and in the drawings/paintings themselves. I hope that sense of freedom continues; it was a positive step aside from my usual practice and I am grateful for that.

Lockdown Home Work Table

Lockdown Sketch Books

Melanie Taylor:      https://melaniectaylor.com/

Working In Isolation: Multidisciplinary Artist Shares Thoughts on the Human Condition Living and Working in Kolkata India

Most artists work in relative isolation.  Our collective art practices and the creative process demands it.  It goes against the human urge to congregate and socialize.  Still, we persevere as the 'call to create' nudges us.  We then deliberately make space - intellectually, emotionally and physically. We move forward quietly, with the intention and faith in the process.

Never have we been more aware of isolation than time spent in this Corona Virus pandemic environment. It is not our choice, but as artists we are familiar and in some ways ahead of the game over our fellow citizens by our familiarity and relative comfort with the loneliness of self -containment.  

Artist Suman Kabira is from Kolkata(previously known as Calcutta) India 

He writes about his work:

The things I paint, or draw, originate from my everyday engagement with Reality. This is a Reality which, for me, is made of mundane happenings and uncanny images which penetrate into each other regularly, often unexpectedly, leaving me bewildered, yet fertile with images that keep appearing onto my works. 

Born in a semi-urban area, very close to village, I had the fortune of getting in close contact with the rural area and nature– both spatially and psycho-spatially. Then I moved to Kolkata for my art education and since then, I’ve been into the entrails of this megapolis. Such a geographical binary, and the tension within, have contributed largely to my painterly imagination. In more ways than one. 

For example, this has allowed me to perceive human bodies and nature in different settings, in different postures and hence, with different nuances. These figures recur in my works.. I keep them as they are, and at times I twist them, turn them and reduce them to the basic forms that defy the comfort of having them readily recognized as any familiar form. 

In fact, I love to revel in the dangerous beauty of nature and binaries: Dream and reality, matter and void, light and darkness. I call them dangerous because they have the ability to slip into each other’s space rendering the so-called borderline in between deeply inane and superfluous.

Before Pandemic:

During the pandemic:

1) How has your work shifted during the pandemic? Has it been a change in the process of you creating art? The mediums you use? The themes or concepts you are thinking about? 

 For my art practice, I find inspiration from my the current happenings, my surroundings, people, and society where I live. As this pandemic creates new suffering,  many new meanings for words like quarantine, lockdown, food rush, crisis, and social distancing come into my art practice which is mixed-up with my inner perspective. When it comes to the basic idea for working, it generally develops stage by stage.  New elements, subjects, perspectives and the current human condition boldly changed my general views and dimensions for rethinking and reconnecting to my new visuals, and new subjects.


2) What have you discovered about yourself as an artist during this pandemic? 

 Honestly the pandemic has given me a chance to rethink my art practice, the subject I generally choose and also for the mediums and colors I use. The pandemic also shows me the other side of a dark situation. The social distancing,  the restriction on free movement and quarantine all actually gave me feedback to connect with my inner sounds and inner imageries that have been added to my practice during this phase. Also this pandemic has offered me a different pyschological zone for discovering a new perspective. It has given me time for assessment my past works and to give ample time to think about projects on the current pandemic situation. In India during this lockdown period a few more correlated things happened. From weather causing cyclones, to different social and political issues. These incidents certainly add another perspective to my regular practice.


3) What have been your biggest challenges working in isolation? Surprises? 

 Yes there have been a few big challenges I have faced. First, it has influenced my energy when I meet common people, observing my surroundings or visiting other artists studios, gallery exhibitions etc. Also when talking to people of different classes of society, talking about their lives , journeys, struggles or success, these experiences have given me new ground to build subjects for working. No doubt this pandemic phase creates obstacles to do this. Also in isolation it has been very difficult to collect my art materials, canvases or other items I use for my work from art materials stores. I basically avoid online shopping for art materials. Also this isolation gives me the great challenge of rethinking and reconnecting to my source of subjects.

https://www.facebook.com/suman.kabiraj.9 

https://www.instagram.com/sumankabirajartstudio 

https://sumankabiraj.wordpress.com/

Working in Isolation: Los Angeles Artist Pushed to Expand Her Boundaries

Most artists work in relative isolation.  Our collective art practices and the creative process demands it.  It goes against the human urge to congregate and socialize.  Still, we persevere as the 'call to create' nudges us.  We then deliberately make space - intellectually, emotionally and physically. We move forward quietly, with the intention and faith in the process.

Never have we been more aware of isolation than time spent in this Corona Virus pandemic environment. It is not our choice, but as artists we are familiar and in some ways ahead of the game over our fellow citizens by our familiarity and relative comfort with the loneliness of self -containment.  

Los Angeles artist Jennifer Miller shares her thoughts about making art during the pandemic.

Before the pandemic:

“When You Look At Art, The Art Looks Back At You”
16 x 20
Acrylic, wood, paint skins on canvas

During the pandemic:

“A Great Retirement Plan”
12 x 12
Acrylic, mesh and cheesecloth on canvas

“Dancer #2”
Acrylic and mesh and cheesecloth on canvas
16" x 12"

“Social Distancing. Some Are Better At It Than Others”
Acrylic and found material on canvas. 20 x 24

1) How has your work shifted during the pandemic? 

Has it been a change in the process of you creating art? The mediums 

you use? The themes or concepts you are thinking about?

I have become incredibly productive. Being stuck at home I find myself painting all day, every day. It is a rare day that goes by that I’m not working in my tiny studio upstairs in my house. Without access to going out for inspiration or new paints or mediums, I started working with what I had at home. I came up with a technique that I have not seen anyone else in the world do. Maybe I’m just not able to find other examples of this type of work but I’ve looked hard and haven’t seen anything like it. I think I was just forced into being more creative by the lack of any creativity available outside the house. In addition to this new technique I also found myself doing abstracts which I’ve never done in my life. I have no idea where that came from. Maybe the forced isolation just pushed me to expand my boundaries.  

2) What have you discovered about yourself as an artist during this pandemic? 

 I’ve discovered that I have so many ideas that I don’t know what to do with them. I will start five paintings at a time and they will be in various stages of completion. I write down ideas of paintings I want to do but then I end up starting something that’s not even on my list. So I’ve learned that even if I have a dry spell, which sometimes can happen, that the creative ideas are always somewhere inside me. I’ve also learned even more than previously that I don’t like to waste anything. I have frequently worked previously with paint skins but now I’m finding bits and pieces around the studio and I’m using those as well. 

3) What have been your biggest challenges working in isolation?      Surprises? 

My biggest challenge is not being able to get my work in front of people. Because what I do is very three-dimensional and textural it doesn’t photograph as well as if you were to see it in person. There are no art shows to go to, I can’t visit galleries and talk to gallery owners, things like that. Also I have run out of canvases and I’ve had to use old paintings that I no longer like and I paint over them. I know I could order online but when I buy canvases I kind of like to go to the store and look at them in person and visualize what I want to do with them. It’s hard for me to buy them online. 

Jennifer's webpage:   www.instagram.com/JenniferMillerpaintings