One of the places I find most inspiring is checking out Donna Downey’s artwork and process videos. I bought her Abstract Florals online course awhile back and worked through some of these pieces with the concepts and principles from it.
I’m challenged by depth and shading…..I don’t get the “make your darks darker and your lights lighter” intuitively, I don’t see where it needs to happen. But I LOVE how these turned out. The character and personality of each one.
Most of them are also what I call redeemed canvases. Layered on top of deep texture underneath. This helps avoid the flatness that can happen when creating a singular image.
These pieces are far from perfect and yet that is what brings them character. It is what is intriguing about them. Again, art really does parallel life – it is our imperfections that give us character and make us intriguing. So, then why are we always trying to hide our imperfections rather than celebrating them? What if we were to embrace rather than try to fix….??
Oooh…there’s that word “fix” again – why am I constantly wanting to fix things -others, myself, etc? What if it doesn’t need to be fixed?!?
A. R. Smith Studios 
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