Art - Inspiration from Nature

Photo by Jadson Thomas from Pexels

A myriad of the world's greatest inventions and discoveries were inspired by nature. The apple falling on the head of Isaac Newton got him wondering about the Earth's mysterious pull: gravity. Countless people throughout the ages have seen birds fly and have made many attempts to soar, eventually leading to the invention of airplanes. Even the famous Fibonacci sequence, a key formula in art and mathematics, was derived from the systematic and organised patterns in nature. 

Nature is definitely awe-inspiring, calming, and its colours and scenes therapeutic. It's no wonder that many artists, poets, mathematicians, musicians, scientists, and people of all occupations find their inspiration in God's most wonderful gift. 

I wasn't any different from these! I live in the countryside with my family and nature is all around me. It gives me an opportunity to look at the birds, insects, reptiles, greenery, and fruits. Last year as the first wave of the coronavirus flooded our poor Earth with the diseased, we were all sadly quarantined in our homes. The people in the cities in their apartments, and the villagers in their houses outside the city. It was a great blessing to leave the city four years before the pestilence struck the world. If we were still stuck in the city, we would suffer without being able to go out. I'm grateful to God for kicking us out into the countryside, because, in the quiet and calm of nature, all fears were stilled, and my creative juices flowing. I would curiously observe the creatures outside the house and would wonder how I could use their beautiful patterns and shapes in art.

In this post I'm going to share two pieces I painted that were inspired by a fruit and an amphibian! 

🥭 A Sweet Collaboration 🥭

One evening last year, my mum gave me some sliced mangoes with the skin still on. After eating the flesh, I looked at the skin, and boy, how beautiful the patches of colours and spots were! You can see a photo of the skin below:

This made me think: "Hey, this could make a super cool pattern on a piece of clothing!". And then I set to work to draw one of my favourite pieces. You can see the progress pictures I took along the way of making it and finally the end result. 

The sketch

The linework and base colours

The masterpiece 

🐸 The Aesthetic Amphibian 🐸

A few weeks later, a little brown frog (in our language, Konkani, we call it godgodo mannko which literally means thunder frog, as they come out just as the thunders of monsoon start) visited and was just soaking in a shallow cup of water that was kept outside. If you know anything about frogs, if they want to drink water, they drink it through their skin, which is why they soak in water. Since the water in the cup was not a lot, we put some more. The frog proceeded to soak, and we were glad. I stayed there watching the frog curiously along with our equally curious dogs (don't worry, they didn't harm the frog) and I gave special attention to the patterns on its body, which you can see below:

(Side note: Seeing the beauty of animals make me a little jealous, not gonna lie. They get to look so colourful while we humans just have fewer, less bright colours. But yes, mute animals have a ton of colours on them for various purposes that probably wouldn't be necessary for our survival. Regardless, I still think it would be amazing to naturally have beautiful and bright colours. But God knows best!)

Seeing the lovely patterns and splotchy, earthy hues on the frog, I again decided that the pattern would look cool on a piece of cloth. You can see the progress pictures below and the final result.

The sketch 

The linework

The base colours 

The masterpiece

Out of all the art that I made last year, these two pieces are my personal favourites and they mean a lot to me. I credit God for the nature that was my inspiration. Watching and looking at all the beauties in it gives me so much peace and fill me with an appreciation for the Creator. I'm glad that we are blessed with the five senses that we use to enjoy our surroundings. 

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See you soon,

Arnica

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