INTERVIEW with Michelle Fleur || Artist & Illustrator
From Michelle’s Instagram
SD: Hi Michelle - can you please introduce yourself to my readers who don't know you yet?
MF: Sure thing! My name is Michelle Fleur and I’m an artist and illustrator, oh and I am madly and deeply in love with whales! I work from my cosy home studio in The Gap with my fuzzy little feline buddy, Frankie, by my side.
SD: How long have you been painting, and how did you get into it?
MF: I’ve been drawing, painting and making things all my life but I only got serious about it a few years ago. I’ve been painting whales (and other creatures) for just over 4 years now and I can’t really imagine doing anything else!
I have always been a creative soul and can’t remember a time when I wasn’t entertaining myself by arting or crafting. I tried to “get a real job” in my twenties but it never really ended well so I went back to university in my 30’s to study A Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Art. After that I went through a period of uncertainty when I realised (after 4 years of a uni degree!) that I didn’t love contemporary art enough to pursue it and truthfully, I wasn’t very good at it either! Haha! I tried portrait photography for a number of years and loved it but it did become exhausting after a while – there is so much more work involved in that than people realise!
About five years ago we moved to Perth temporarily for my partner’s work and I had a lot of free time on my hands. One day I picked up a watercolour palette and started painting and all the magic of creating came back to me. I loved the way the pigment moved on the paper and the whole process of watercolour painting held me captive. The rest is history - I’ve been painting with watercolours ever since.
From Michelle’s Instagram
SD: What advice would you give to someone who feels repeatedly disappointed by their detailed paintings – how do you avoid the feeling of wanting to give up completely.
MF: Disappointment, frustration, agitation, blocks, procrastination - it is all a part of the creative life. The longer you do it the more you will work out ways to deal with these feelings and states of being. You only learn through making mistakes and complete messes. Every single creative has made piles and piles and piles of terrible work. Once you really get that it just becomes part of the process and you don’t beat yourself up about it. Now I just go ‘well, that didn’t work, better try something else!” Don’t get me wrong, there are days where I get completely frustrated but I would never give up – I can’t! If I’m a bit over something I’ll just move onto another project and plug away at that. I have several projects on the go at any one time that I shift between. Sometimes it is good to give a frustrating piece a lot of space. I can leave a piece for over a year before I come back to it and my work isn’t even very detailed!
SD: What are you working on at the moment?
MF: I have several projects on the go right now. I have my watercolour illustrations that I always come back to –they just kind of come out of me when they feel like it!
I am working on a garden critters journal where I am painting the creatures that I find in my garden every day.
I have just started oil painting again and I have several canvasses on the go. I just come and go with them whenever I feel like it. It’s challenging for me but I’m trying to turn off my inner critic and have fun with it.
I am also weaving lots of baskets and doing a couple of hand-sewing projects which keep me company when I’m watching movies or tv.
SD: How does travel and painting different environments/cultures impact upon your painting practice?
MF: I’m very influenced by my environment so if we are travelling I will keep a travel journal and fill it with impressions of the places that we visit. I love creating these journals and looking back at them years later. Right now I am working on an oil painting based on a trip we made to Scotland last year. I really wanted a piece that reminded me of how much we loved it there and I was going to print out a photo but none of them really captured the feelings I wanted to convey. So, I decided to try my hand at painting it instead!
From Michelle’s Instagram
SD: How has your art evolved over the years?
MF: It has evolved dramatically! Or de-evolved might be more accurate! I am literally doing now what I was doing when I was like 7 years old – painting and drawing creatures with watercolour paints. I’ve tried almost everything else in-between coming back to this practice – things such as sculpture, digital art, photography, even sound art and installation! Turns out all I really wanted was a comfortable, cosy studio, a few simple art supplies, and some beautiful paper. That’s all I need. It’s so funny how I spent literally decades trying to figure that out and then more time convincing myself that it was a valid and worthy way to spend my time!
SD: What is the most important lesson to remember when making art?
MF: I’m not sure I know what the most important lesson is as art feels different for everyone. But for me it’s important to let go and lose myself in the moment of creation. It’s important for me to enjoy the process, but again that’s not true of everyone – plenty of art arises from suffering. Art for me is refuge and where I can be my truest, best, most authentic self. I love being the person that makes the work I do – it feels right to me. It is important to be vulnerable though, at least in showing what you do, but I also think it’s important during the making process. Most art requires that you be open to the world in some way.
From Michelle’s Instagram
SD: Are there any works of art/artists who you particularly admire?
MF: There are so many! When I think of the great art loves I’ve had throughout my life I think of illustrators like Arthur Rackham, Beatrix Potter, May Gibbs, Brian Froud, and Alan Lee. I loved the Pre-Raphaelites when I was in my twenties, particularly Waterhouse. The greats like Frida Kahlo, Chagall, Kandinsky, Turner, Blake and Albrecht Durer. Now I love botanical illustration by all kinds of amazing illustrators, and there are so many children’s book illustrators I admire also. Far too many to name!
SD: Do you have any words of advice for anyone curious about trying their hand at watercolour?
MF: Just get in there and give it a go! Play around a lot and see what works. Try some YouTube tutorials but don’t get bogged down in someone else’s style. There are no rules, really. You have to be willing to embrace ‘mistakes’ with watercolour. Some see it as an unforgiving medium, but I love it.
SD: What is your process when painting?
MF: I sketch out a design or image before I paint with watercolours. Then I pull out the paints and just go for it. I will usually do a couple of thin layers of watercolour to get rich, deep colour and depth. You have to wait for one layer to dry before starting another so I’ll often work on two or three pieces at once.
SD: What is a little known fact you would like to share?
MF: Everyone is creative.
Follow Michelle on her:
Art Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/michellefleurphoto/
Gardening Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/cosmic_dream_gardener/
Website and Blog: http://www.instagram.com/cosmic_dream_gardener/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/michellefleurartist/
Red Bubble: http://www.redbubble.com/people/michellefleurk/shop/top+selling?ref=sort_order_change_top_selling&asc=u