Finding your style

Over the many years that I have been painting and teaching art online and in person, there is one subject that crops up time and time again – “How do I find my style?”

Many people, including myself, have worried about this. It seems so important to have a style of painting that is different from everyone else, to have a unique voice, to be instantly recognisable. After all, each of us is an individual and each of us has something to say.

I read this quote in the Artists and Illustrators Magazine (July 2023) by an artist called Anna Rose Bain. She wrote: “You only get one life. Yours is a story worth telling. Take the time to learn the language, so that you can more effectively tell your story”.

Take the time to learn the language of painting. That means practising with your chosen medium until you know how to say what you want to say. And I think that what happens along the way, as we practise our art, as we perhaps try new things, or stick with what we know best, what happens is that we develop our own style. It just happens naturally. No stressing. No worrying. No trying to copy other styles that we admire. It just happens as we do it.

In the process of making art we find our own unique voice.

Your voice is unique

I love scrolling through Instagram and saving paintings that inspire me, or making a collection of amazing pictures on Pinterest. Other artists excite me and often I want to be able to emulate their style. One of the things that begins to happen as I do this, is that I learn to recognise each artist’s work. I will look at a painting for literally just a second and instantly know who painted it. When I check the name below the picture I am probably 99% correct. Why is this? Because of their style. The way the paint is applied, the colours used, the brush-marks etc.. all tell a story and show the hand of the artist. Their voice is unique.

Your voice is unique.

Every time you draw a few lines or put brush to paper you are making your marks. Just think about your handwriting and the way you sign your name. Literally this is your signature style! It is unlike anyone else. Perhaps you developed your signature when you were first learning to write. I remember trying out various ways of writing my name that looked cool and stylish, but ended up with something rather fake and un-natural. Only later did I develop, quite sub-consciously, the illegible scrawl I now use when signing my name.

But, love it or hate it, it’s mine!

What has this to do with painting style?

Well, the same applies to our painting. Our style just happens along the way. I always thought I did not have a style, largely because I was teaching art and was using many different styles to do so. But now, when I look back over my paintings I do see a certain style emerging. It comes from the way I apply paint, the colours I use, the way I paint trees and the way I make marks.

And when I am in the act of painting, I tend to approach the canvas or paper in the same way each time, and paint in a similar way. This alone creates style.

Developing and changing your style

David Hockney is an artist who is constantly developing and changing his style. He tells a story of someone looking at a new and different piece of his art who said, “That doesn’t look like a Hockney”. And David Hockney replied, “No, but it will”. He believes that as artists we should continually be developing our art (I think we would all agree to that!), but that must mean developing or changing our style as we go along. So, how can we begin to do this?

Possibly, here is a clue:

I personally don’t want to copy or steal from others. However, I am happy to learn from them. To pick up techniques, ideas, inspiration, and then make it my own. Perhaps this means painting a different subject, perhaps using different materials or colours, perhaps using my paints in surprising and unconventional ways. Whatever it is, I want my style to progress and flourish, and not stagnate and fossilise.

I suspect we all want that in our painting life!

So relax, be chilled about your style. Recognise that you already have a style that is unique to you. And then see how you can change it!

Happy painting!

#learningtopaint #PabloPicasso #findingyourstyle #davidhockney #paintingstyle