Towards a Different Approach

About this artwork

I am a self-taught painter. I was born with this love of painting. It has always accompanied me throughout my life, even though I have sometimes mistreated it and hidden it. I didn't study fine arts. That has always been an important burden for me. I have often felt like an intruder in this world of art. Many painters have looked down on me for not having studied fine art. That made me learn a lot of technique for a few years by going to painting courses with great masters. I needed to acquire skills to be able to keep up. I learned many rules related to color mixing, complementary colors and other color theory, rules of composition, rules on the use of materials, rules on the use of different painting techniques, even rules for cleaning brushes. Everything was rules. Undoubtedly, my painting progressed, my style became more defined, but along the way I lost part of my essence, my creativity and my emotions. I was a prisoner of the rules for many years, until I questioned leaving painting. One day, I felt that learning technique and rules was all very well, but I had to release all my emotions and mix everything I had learnt according to what I felt, no matter if I followed the steps or not. I had to put creativity, enjoyment and passion above the rules. To paint whatever I felt like, to feel each brushstroke with passion. Today I can say, that breaking all the rules I learnt saved my painting. Painting is an emotion. It is something you feel and carry inside. For authentic painters it is something innate, that's why you don't have to set rules or follow them all the time. If I feel like mixing charcoal with oil... I do it. If I feel like mixing watercolor with acrylic .... I do it. If I feel like painting by hand instead of with a brush...I do it. Painting should be freedom and a way of expressing oneself but without ties. Society and the world in general is messed up enough to put rules on painting!!!! Painting=Freedom.