Martina Falk ArtWork
Mother nature and the mystery Nov 10th 2023 This small format painting on paper to me represents nature – obviously there is a tree, maybe a lake, hills, the setting sun … nature really is where most of my inspiration comes from, I am endlessly inspired by beautiful landscapes, colourful autumn leaves, ancient knotty trees… yes, I love nature, always have, and I find spending time is nature is immensly nurturing. Closely linked to nature, for me is a sense of mystery, of the part of life we cannot put into words, something spiritual if you want. I have always felt this sense of mystery on my walks in the woods, smelling the earth, hearing the birds sing, but also when I spend quiet time by myself lighting candles and listening to soothing music. The urge to express this sense of mystery is really one of the driving forces behind my artistic work. In my paintings, and in this one in particular it definetely comes through. Can you sense it? This piece is available for sale at the shop at my website: https://www.martinafalk.com/product-page/painting-on-paper-2023.
Playing a trick on myself
October 18th, 2023
At the moment, I am busy preparing for the weekend of open art studios in Altdorf/Germany end of October. Most of the paintings I am going to show are finished and ready. Only four smaller canvases are still in the making. My idea was to have them ready and take them with me next Monday, which is when I am going to leave to Germany. Tricky thing is, that you can´t really push things in art – creativity doesn´t like deadlines. Who does, you might say ;-) So, what I did was allowing myself the option, that they might not be ready by Sunday and thus I won´t be able to show them at the event. But at the same time, I kept working on them. While doing so, I noticed they might need less work as I had thought initially. With one of the pieces, I actually decided to consider it finished the way it is, as I am liking it the way it is, ignoring a critical voice inside me that said: “No this cannot be finished yet.” I also realized that two of them are actually close to being finished, so it won´t take me long to be done with them. So in the end, there is really just one of these four canvases that needs some more work done, hoorayy! It feels like, by opening myself up to the possibility that I might not manage to finish them in time – some part of me relaxed and this opened me up to look at these unfinished pieces in a different way – and tataa – goal will probably be accomplished in time! I guess this approach is not only helpful in art, but in life. It´s kind of playing a trick on your mind Have you ever had a similar experience? Would love to hear from you!
Two finished small canvas paintings out of four!
To view artwork available for sale, click here https://www.martinafalk.com/product-page/work-on-paper-2023.
Hello autumn - or when the heat is gone
October 2nd, 2023
For me, it really changes everything! It means, I can be outside and active during the day without suffering a sunstroke and wanting to have a cold shower every 5 minutes. As my painting space is a winter garden with the sun shining in all afternoon and evening - during full on summer, it´s almost impossible to sit there and paint, let alone work standing up on a large canvas – no way! Therefore, I don´t really do a lot of painting during August and July, but as soon as temperatures drop, I am back in the studio to spend most of my afternoons painting and exploring again. Also, the overall rhythm of life changes, outdoor activities such as gardening, going for walks become enjoyable again during the day. Another aspect of summer on our little island is the huge amount of people who come to spend their holiday here, even in our small village you hardly find a spot to park, lots of traffic and people everywhere – in September there start to be less people and a more calm energy can be felt at last. The first rains encourage the grass to grow again where there was only bare red earth before. Just yesterday I spotted some tiny flowers in the forest behind our house, so beautiful to see that nature is coming back to life again! And very secretly, I am starting to look forward to light my wood stove at some point in October ;-) I just love it when the intensity of heat and humidity is lifted from us and the island´s rhythm is finally slowing down. The flowers on the pictures bellow are typically coming out in autumn, on some fields you can see big crowds of them, and as they are really tall, it looks quite funny :-) What do you love about autumn? Drop me a message, I always love to hear from you!
This piece is available for sale, for details, just click here https://www.martinafalk.com/product-page/work-on-paper-2023. It is one of my small paintings on paper, but you can also view larger work in my shop .