— The featured artist of the 96th issue of Living the Photo Artistic Life magazine is AWAKE artist Christina Brunton from Australia. I’m happy to be able to interview Christina here on Quill and Camera …
Q: What was it that got you started in photo artistry?
Twenty years ago I learnt how to paint, and later I started photography as a way to capture images as a reference for my oil paintings. But work commitments eventually just made it hard to find the time to paint. For work I was traveling around Australia and training staff in Correctional Centres, Probation and Parole Centres, Courts, and also Fire Services. Straight after having my first painting lesson, I was off to spend three months delivering training around the countryside. At the end of each day, I would go back to my motel and paint a picture out of the newspaper as a way to practice. The first problem I came across was when I finished painting I had to wash out my brushes with turpentine. That smell stayed in the room as you can imagine, and I ended up with the worst migraine headaches, so I quickly learnt to clean up outside and leave my brushes outside as well.
Photography was easier in that regard. When I took up photography it was to take photos of all the beautiful scenes I saw whilst traveling, mostly to paint them later once I had time. Finding time was the problem though, so photography soon took over and I more or less left painting behind.
When I retired, I told myself that I was going to be more creative with my photography. After that I discovered Sebastian Michaels’s courses and was thrilled to find that photographs could be made into fine art and that I could do digital art. It was an awesome realization that I was able to merge my passions of painting and photography. And I didn’t have to clean my paint brushes with turps anymore as I used digital brushes instead! My world had changed.
Q: What would you say inspires your work?
I get inspiration from the tutorials in the KAIZEN group, from visiting art exhibitions, and even from listening to songs. Much of my inspiration comes from the members of the AWAKE, KAIZEN, and Artist Down Under groups. These are my friends . . . my art buddies . . . my tribe.
Q: What does “living an artistic life” mean to you?
I have got to say I LOVE living the artistic life. And for me, that means every day has some kind of art attached to it — time spent creating art, time spent watching tutorials, and perhaps attending exhibitions or visiting galleries, printing and framing for exhibitions myself, or just looking at art in our groups.
When we were in lockdown, I actually loved it because I would get absorbed in my art and could enjoy it all day long if I liked.
Art just makes me happy. Creating art for me is a meditation where I am so focussed on the artistry that time stands still.
Creating art is a way of life that sings to me. And I always hope my work touches a viewer’s emotional strings and somehow reaches their heart and soul.
Perhaps at its core, striving for that connection each day is what living an artistic life really means to me.
Q: Can you describe your creative process? (Do you follow any kind of system?)
I see myself as an image maker and digital artist, where I plan my photo-shoots and what I want to create before I start. (Most of the time anyhow, though not always.) So I mainly use a two-step process for my artistry: first creating the photos, then enhancing them through digital artistry. And I do think of it as two distinct steps.
My process for any photo-shoot is firstly to choose the theme and some idea that can express it (I keep a pen and paper by my bed so that I can jot these down when they wake me up in the middle of the night) . . . and then everything else seems to follow — such as what photos I want to capture and work with, or which model to bring in for the shoot and what wardrobe and props to employ, as well as consideration of whether it is an indoor or outdoor setting and in either event what needs to be included in the shoot, and so on.
It is like having two studios. The first is the photography studio. The other studio is my computer, where I take up the second stage of the process and try to create on a daily basis.
Here I have a number of alarms set up. The first alarm tells me to sit at the computer and start creating . . . and an hour later another alarm tells me to take a break. On this one I push the snooze button to give myself 10 mins to maybe have a cup of coffee and do some stretches. Getting up regularly is important. I have known a couple of people who got deep vein thrombosis from sitting at the computer for so long that they ended up with blood clots. Not good. And it is so easy to lose track of time when you are creating art. So the alarm tells me to get up and take a break. Then when the snooze alarm goes off after 10 minutes it’s time for me to get back to my art.
I love working with a theme in mind, especially when it can carry into a series that I am passionate about. I call these ‘Projects of Passion.’ I really enjoy working on a body of work or series because to me they tend to say more as a group than as a single image or art piece. A series of related compositions needs to be cohesive and the pieces need to look good together as they can easily end up as an exhibition.
Every year I take stock of the previous year by choosing my Top 50 images for the past year and make a slide show and book. From there I can pat myself on my back and feel proud of what I have accomplished. Then I look forward to the year ahead and think about what I want to accomplish next as I continually work to become better at my art.
Q: Any suggestions or advice for aspiring artists?
I think I would give four simple pieces of advice:
1.) Create what you love.
2.) Never stop learning.
3.) Refuse to compare yourself to others.
4.) And make sure you do something artsy every day!
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