Welcome
- Kelly Foster
- May 18
- 3 min read
I have been wanting to create a website for my artwork for a long time and I am glad it is finally here. This website is mostly to show the various art styles that I have created and a space to see how my work has evolved and changed over time. Whilst adding pieces to my site and giving each one a description, it has me reflecting on all the different types of art I have made and how I have let go of some that I feel are no longer me.
I used to love drawing and making different crafts when I was a child. I took to drawing again when I reached my late teens to early twenties. At that time, there were no youtube channels or patreon tutorials to help me learn to draw. Some of my very early attempts at drawing and painting are very basic with only a little shading and not much awareness of blending watercolours and coloured pencils, or highlights. But my art was, and is now, just for fun and something I do that makes me happy.
When I started having children and my beautiful daughter came along, my focus shifted and I only made a couple of pieces as I was enjoying motherhood and spent most of my free time reading about child development and fun games/activities to do with a growing baby. It was only when my third child was about six months old that I felt the bug for art grow again. But when I sat down to draw, I just wasn't feeling it. It wasn't come out onto the page the way I wanted it to. Then one day I randomly came across a page on instagram where a woman was talking about a fluid art group she had started over on facebook. I clicked on it out of curiosity and I was hooked. This group was in its infancy then with only about 500 members and it was a place where people could explore fluid art, share tips and tricks, share discoveries with each other, and try to understand the science behind good abstract fluid art. Back then, it was still a relatively new art form and fluid paints were not mainstream. Big paint brands had not made a line of fluid art products or mediums to use together. It was such a fun group and many of the people I met online through that group I still know today.
Fluid art really helped me. It was fun, colourful, and it gave me the freedom to let go. I didn't need to control the outcome or need it to look a set way. It was about play and letting go of control over what the piece should be. This was the first time I shared my art on instagram through the encouragement of the people in that group. I truly am so grateful I joined that group and that there were such wonderful people willing to share what they learnt with me and others.
Another style of play I deeply enjoyed was paint balls. I loved the marbled effects and how these paint balls nestled on a soft bed of patterned paint. I loved how sometimes the colours all mixed together making striking ribbons and how other times, the colours would separate into clear bold colours alongside each other. I enjoyed trying to zoom in with my camera and get the best shots before the paint balls popped and they all dispersed.
Well, that is it for my first art blog post. If you read this far, thank you and hopefully you will enjoy my next post. Take care and see you soon.
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