On drawing inspiration for art

Another question I get asked a lot is, "where do you draw inspiration from when you paint"

I would love to say "from my own creative mind", but that only happens sometimes. I will dream something or see something in my minds eye and I will be bursting to paint it.. Quite often however, it never turns out like I think it will, but sometimes it does.. and I kind-a like that. 

But there are lots of other places I draw inspiration from, but today I will just talk about my top 5 ... so here goes:-

No. 1 - Pinterest - yep good ole Pinterest... yes I spend way too much time on here than I should, but it has so much yummy stuff to refer too and I'm not just talking about food. I often will see a beautiful photo of a gorgeous glamour shoot and I love the dress or hair and then I paint the way I think it looks... here is an example -

and here is my version

No. 2  A few posts back, I spoke about my love for Frida Kahlo - you can read about it - here... so I draw a lot of inspiration from the colour's she was renowned for wearing and her beautiful face. And also her own beautiful paintings. 

No. 3 From the background of my painting. I just play away sometimes splashing paint here and there and then after awhile, I'll stop and say "now what does this background tell me it wants to have painted over the top of it?" Yep seriously, I really do let the background talk to me LOL

The above painting has layers and layers of paper and paint. 

No. 4 Colour's - sometimes I just want to play with a certain colour of paint, generally one that I haven't played with in a while. Like at the moment, I seem to be a little obsessed with Orange.

Last but not least.... No. 5 (and please note there are lots of other places I draw from, but I dont want to bore you with a list as long as my arm) is Nature.. yep that's right - tree's, bird's, poppies, flowers....

Below is an example of inspiration drawn from nature.

As always thanks for stopping by.