What is inspiration?

Tough one this. My most immediate thought is Alwyn Crawshaw. My dictionary, however, describes inspiration as being ‘someone or something that gives you ideas for doing something’ or a ‘good idea’. But what does that mean in terms of everyday life?

Inspiration can be as simple as the desire to copy. You might see someone wearing a fantastic looking coat and immediately feel to the need to rush out and buy the exact same coat for yourself. You will certainly have been inspired to do that. Look how much money is spent on advertising in an attempt to inspire you to buy the advertisers' products. They wouldn't waste their money if it didn't show results.

One anomaly with this particular sense is that what inspires today might not necessarily do so tomorrow. And vice versa.

Let's put that into terms of photos; after all, that's what photos4artists is all about. Pretend - not easy at the moment I know - but let's pretend that it's a beautiful summer's day and you woke up absolutely bursting with the joy of being alive. You have a day off from work, all the day's chores have been completed, the sun is streaming through the window and you just, must and absolutely have to paint something. It's unlikely that you will be inspired to paint a photo of a misty, rain sodden landscape. If you are then I would suggest you go and sit in the sun for a while.

Equally, imagine it's cold and wet and miserable outside - no need to dredge up too much in the way of imagination for this one - and you still want to paint. You might want to use a photo with bright sunshine and deep shadows as inspiration, just to cheer yourself up and who could blame you for that. However, it's more likely, if you use inspiration as any sort of kick start, that you will use the current (meteorological rather than financial) climate as the inspiration to go for the atmospheric, moody feel.

What about objects rather than subjects? Browsing through the galleries and finding a photo of an old tractor or a rusty boat might just evoke earlier, happy memories and inspire you to start painting. Try it. Browse, browse and browse again. Photos4artists is an excellent start if looking for artists's reference photos. You might have a rough idea of what you want to paint, but you can't really orchestrate inspiration. You never really know what will inspire you until it happens.