Scottish artist, Scott Naismith, who managed to bring art closer to the people through social networks enough to become absolute hit where images of his paintings are shared all over people’s profiles.
Scott uses vivid colours in a vigorous application to represent the fast changing light conditions of the West coast of Scotland, which is quite certain the biggest source of his inspiration.
The love he has for his native Scottish countryside is portrayed in his work through an ebullient energy with which he handles the colour with palette knife and brush.
Naismith accepted to answer a few questions to our website Trafika.ba what we strongly apreciate. In desire to introduce you this relatively young artist who captivated world with his talent, we asked him….
Your painting “Primary Sky” has reached a huge popularity online by being shared mostly from a website artistaday.com where you are the most shared artist with nearly 100 000 shares. How do you comment the power of online media in terms of helping art finding shorter and faster way to its audience?
Online media is greatly dependent on quality visuals (both images and video). The world has become both impatient and information hungry at the same time. To attract attention, an image is all important. Even videos rely on a good image thumbnail in order to catch the attention of the fleeting browser. As a result of this, powerful images can have a huge impact and reach huge audiences where before they would be seen by very few.
Once these images are identified as a success others want to feature them to provide quality instant impact to their online content. The coverage becomes exponential.
This is great for the arts. I believe a move is imminent away from inaccessible, elitist conceptual art towards art that conveys an instant aesthetic beauty as well as a deeper meaning or narrative. Art now reaches a far bigger audience on screens than in galleries and walls. Owning the one original piece of art at the source then becomes very appealing.
You use social networks very well to promote your work where you also make it reachable to the people who might like it. How did you decide to share the process of making your painting on YouTube tutorials leaving no space to the mystery of how’s been made?
I'm often asked about that. The mystique surrounding the creation of a work of art. A magician's game is up once the trick is revealed. However a good artist is not tricking you. To document the creation of art shows the artist's pride in the process. Only a good restaurant will have a window to the kitchen. Living with, buying and appreciating art requires an emotional response and I believe that is easier achieved through a connection with artist and process.
Seeing you paint it all seems so spontaneous like you are just creating the impression of a landscape. Are they coming from your mind or you see the sight and interpret it on the canvas later? Could you share with us where those amazing sights really come from?
I'm inspired every day by changing light and cloud formations, shapes and patterns and my travels on the west coast of Scotland are very much engrained on my mind's eye. Other single moments recur in my paintings. None more so than a time in Hawai in 2005 when massive cumulus clouds used to bellow up and dissipate as they reached the coast from the mountains. I asked Gill (who is now my wife to stand on the balcony for a photo to capture the moment!
When I come to the paintings in the studio I begin as an abstract artist concerned with the depiction of shapes as light filters from sky to land, top to bottom. The relationship between the atmosphere and the earth. I later refine marks to reveal a more recognisable scene.
I make use of photography, however I often call the use of photos to be a ‘ball and chain’ for an artist's creativity.
Is there an artist who had an influence on your work or somebody you just admire to?
The most obvious would be J.M.W. Turner who's technique and approach to the depiction of pure atmosphere was ground breaking. Many other influences of mine are very much abstract painters. Nicholas De Stael for his thick application of interlocking shapes. Scottish artist Joan Eardley for her free, expressive brushwork. Contemporary Scottish artist Christopher Wood's abstract paintings always show a great approach to colour and texture that delights me every time I come across it here in Scotland. I love the idea of deconstructing solid shape and drawing through a freedom of marks and I'm taken with the work of figurative artist Paul Ruiz for this.
Probably most of all, I look to Henry Matisse for inspiration. He was the master of colour and that is constantly the most important part of my work. I'm known for my modern take on colour theory on youtube through videos such as ‘The truth about the colour wheel’ which promotes Cyan Magenta and Yellow as painting primaries instead of the traditionally taught red, blue, yellow.
Read more about Scott Naismith on his official website http://scottnaismith.com/
Photos in article are taken from official Facebook page of Scott Naismith https://www.facebook.com/scottnaismithartist
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