Biophilia and Art

Biophilia means a love of life or living things and refers to the natural tendency of humans to affiliate with nature and life outdoors, as defined by the American Biologist E. O. Wilson.

I feel it’s a particularly pertinent area given current  issues we face through global warming and climate change, threatening the health and preservation of our beautiful planet.

It is also central to the art I make, which is influenced by the countryside around me here in East Devon. Walking in my local area gives me so much inspiration from abstract landscapes to the small details of trees, plants, streams etc, which often reveal miniature, intricate and colourful ‘worlds’. We have beautiful woodlands around Sidmouth, such as Harpford wood, where you can follow the old railway track closed since 1967, down to Tipton St. John. Equally you can wander over one of the pebbled heaths like Aylesbeare Common, home to a myriad of wildlife including the Dartford Warbler, Nightjars and rare butterflys.

Albert Einstein said ‘ There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle’.

Engaging with the natural world through art is a wonderful stress buster, promoting calm and sensory experiences. Looking at nature inspired art, photographs and organic objects and images, can give a boost to mental well being and help us to reconnect with the natural world.

Artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Paul Cezanne, Yayoi Kusama and Vincent Van Gogh are a few examples of famous artists, who repeatedly investigated nature inspired themes through art.

If you want to invest in a new painting or print to create a calming vibe, nature inspired art could be your perfect choice, whether this be natural colours, organic shapes, landscapes, flower or fruit studies, the choice is yours.

Staining or underpainting a canvas

There are a few benefits to staining a canvas i.e. painting out the entire white surface before beginning an image. To start with it acts as a warm up both physically with the act of mixing and applying a colour, warming up your hands, wrists and arms and mentally in conquering the plain white surface and sometimes overcoming any creative block you may experience from time to time.

Secondly staining the white can help to read colours better as they can often look different against a white background. Remember your background will shine through the early layers of paint that you lay down and you may want to leave some small areas exposed, so you will need to choose your stain according to the look that you want. You could choose a bright colour or an earthy tone depending on your style of painting. I personally like to use a neutral earthy pink tone, a bit like 'Potters Pink' which I mix using titanium white, with burnt sienna and a small amount of raw umber, this gives a nice warmth to my paintings . Whatever colour you choose try to use a mid tone, as this will help you to judge the darks and lights in your painting more easily.

I tend to use acrylic paint mixed with a small amount of water for the under layers as it dries quickly and I often like to work over a dry underlayer. However, you could also use oil paint diluted with thinners, such as Jacksons low odour thinners or similar. This would work well if you wanted to use a rag to sketch your image into the wet paint and would allow wet into wet painting over the top.

To apply my underlayer I first wet the canvas with water using a spray bottle.

Then apply my slightly watered down paint to the wet canvas using a flat wide brush or a sponge applicator to coat the whole surface and sides. This is just the first layer so don't worry if the paint seems thin at this stage.

Please refer to my materials page for the items I use in my work.

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