When I discovered the beautiful floral artwork of Alisa Burke, I was thrilled when I found out that she also ran online art classes (and better yet, they were on sale). I snapped up a pass to the Flower Power course, and have been working my way through ever since. So far, I am halfway through the content, which focuses on inspiring budding artists, rather than offering a how-to guide of replicating her art.
I’ve always been drawn to creativity. My Grandpa was a watercolour painter, and he gave me lessons when I used to go round for dinner once a week as a child. I also took private lessons from a wonderfully eccentric artist when I was about fourteen – we worked mostly in oil paints, and she taught me to “paint what you see”. It was a lesson which was challenging to take on board, especially as what you see is often flawed, and it is tempting to deviate from the truth for a more perfect finish.
Looking back, I can now see it was probably counterintuitive that my art lessons started with learning how to paint landscapes, entire bouquets of flowers, and self-portraits. I never got to start at the beginning, which I think is why it has been so much fun to explore colour and line work in such a flexible and creative way with Flower Power.
Alisa’s courses include videos, photographs and text – the frequent switching of media keeps you engaged, and there are lots of colourful references to art that Alisa has already created, which is brilliant for inspiration. She links to recommended materials, and really offers an indepth look at her creative process. It was also interesting to see her work on a project from the beginning, it felt like an insightful ‘behind the scenes’, especially when Instagram so often only shows the final result.
It’s nice to get back to basic techniques, and the area I have enjoyed the most has been doodling. Everyone must doodle, even if it’s just squiggles while being on the phone at work, but I’d never actually sat down to doodle with the intention of creating a piece of art. As I got more confident with my drawings, I decided to throw in new shapes, eventually adding colour and bolder lines. It didn’t always work out, but I’ve learnt that isn’t the point – I’ve had enormous fun getting back into drawing and painting, and I won’t be stopping anytime soon.
If you’re interested in joining the Flower Power course by Alisa Burke, or any of her other classes, check out her shop.
