What’s the Art that I like?

Over the weekend, I watched the SCBWI Winter Conference. I especially enjoyed the session that included recipes for success in 2022 from the Art Directors.

I’ve been asking myself what is the art that I really like? What style would I paint in if there were no other influences in my life? If I were the last person on the planet?

I was drawn to an idea expressed during the conference. Someone suggested taking out all of my picture books and looking through them and identifying what I like about the art in each of them. Today I spent most of my day analyzing picture books. I only got through about 18 of them. I have stacks of picture books from my personal library left to analyze.

Some I realized I had never actually read the story. I had bought them or asked for them as gifts but I haven’t sat down and read them. I kept a notebook handy and wrote down things I liked about the art in each book. The themes that seem to be emerging so far are:

texture, line, organic, simple shapes, vibrant colors, repetition & variety, unique shapes, luminosity, graphic.

I was going to catalog how many times each of these words surfaced for me in my notebook, but I decided not to take the time yet to do that.

Kimberly Kelly Santini, an artist I follow, talks about how when themes surface several times in her life, she explores them. A theme that I’ve heard several times from different sources is to make are that you love. Play and explore. When the art is personal, then it will speak to others.