Finding a Home in How You Create Art: Laura Horn
Mixed media artist Laura Horn (Ep.32) almost went to art school. She was on the brink but then something blocked her.
“I got pretty intimidated around the whole process of getting into art school and putting together a portfolio,” says Horn.
It would be years later during maternity leave she found herself with two children (a baby and a daughter in kindergarten) surrounded by her eldest child’s art supplies. Crayons and paint and paper. Wonderful colors and materials and the sense of non self conscious play that children bring to their art.
“That’s where I reconnected with my creative side,” says Horn. “Because when I found I was doing things with her, I just wanted to keep going.”
Horn had found art again.
“I was just so happy to have something that's for me,” she says.
She began with a tiny corner and a small laptop desk as her creative space. But that soon changed.
“Gradually I increased my space and took over the house.”
FINDING WHAT WORKS
Now that she had rediscovered art, she brought an incredible amount of passion to it. She worked intuitively. And while she still loved painting, the passion wasn’t quite enough to overcome the frustrations she began to feel.
“I loved it. ...But I also found it really challenging that I couldn't create what I wanted to create. And I recognized I didn't have the skills that I needed around things like color mixing and composition, and even understanding supplies.”
So she enrolled in an art class where she began to learn more traditional styles of painting. She painted still life.
And she absolutely hated it.
“I still wanted to just throw everything at the canvas and have fun,” she says. “But it taught me about color mixing and drawing and observation.”
She did what students sometimes call “the boring stuff.” But it was that mix of careful study, making swatches, color studies and other art basics that began to help her find a way of study that she DID enjoy.
“I almost approached it like I was a bit of a scientist, you know, like, what would happen if I combine this with this and just taking the time to reflect and notice.”
She turned to journals. She began trying experiments on one side of a page and then writing down the results on the other. What happened? How did it feel? What did she learn? Where did she get frustrated?
It was combining an intuitive style with a bit more intention.
“That's when I started to enjoy my art more and my painting improved as well.”
MANAGEABLE STEPS
Today Horn works through her pieces in a very intentional series of steps. She encourages her students to find steps as well even if they don’t look like her steps.
For Horn, it begins with having some ideas for the piece.
“There's definitely a lot of room to change and adapt. But I do tend to have some ideas.”
Horn knows that not everyone works best this way. That some artists want to come to the blank canvas and let everything emerge from there. But this isn’t the process that Horn has found work best for her own practice.
“I loved it. ...But I also found it really challenging that I couldn't create what I wanted to create. And I recognized I didn't have the skills that I needed around things like color mixing and composition, and even understanding supplies.” - Laura Horn
She begins with watersoluable crayons or pencils and makes scribbly marks across the page.
“I usually use it as an opportunity to loosen up and kind of feel my way into the process”
Having a color palette in mind, next she begins adding paint. Whether she’s working in acrylic or watercolor, she goes in with a very loose layer. She works light to dark.
“One of my main intentions when I start a painting is just to get some of that looseness in there, but also to get a variety of value.”
At the end of this step, she wants lights, mids and dark contrasts in her work.
She begins to add in small drawings. She keeps her journals around to see what she’s done before and what she likes from those.
The second layer becomes much more focused.
“I give myself a lot of freedom to mix colors on the page when I do that first layer. But as I move into the second layer, I'm looking at what's there and saying, what does it need. And I might take more time actually mixing up a color because I wanted to blend and harmonize with what's there.”
She’s checking for things like balance and then responding to what the painting needs.
“I might need to maybe bring some darker colors to the base of the painting or just to get the balance right, I might turn it upside down and kind of have a look at it to see what needs to be added.”
She’s also deciding what type of painting it will be. Will it be very abstract or will it be semi abstract? She looks to past work as a guide to where to head next.
FINDING WHAT’S RIGHT FOR YOU
Horn has spent years developing a way of working that allows her to truly enjoy the process of making art.
“It's quite relaxing and almost meditative, because I have a fairly good idea of what I'm doing. And often there are repetitive marks involved or drawings that I've done before. And I can kind of just relax in and enjoy taking my time with it.”
Horn gave herself permission and paid attention to her own inclinations to create a process that she loves. She is truly at home in her process. Every step is enjoyable.
And it’s made all the difference in her work.
“I started thinking more about the process, and less about the end result, that's when things really improved.“
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