by Ober-Rae Starr Livingstone
(kolorama.fineartstudioonline.com)
I find inspiration in the beauty of nature. As a young man I worked on ships, hitchhiked, and traveled by buses and trains in order to make my way around the world. Much of what I experienced visually and emotionally makes its way into my acrylic landscape paintings.
I paint the landscape with the hope that, by depicting the beauty of Creation, others will remember that feeling of awe and peace that we often experience when we stop to watch a sunset, or to observe the play of light dancing on water, or when we take the time to observe sun and shadow sweeping across a valley.
My work has been published in several print and online magazines and blogs. I have had the good fortune to have won awards in internationally recognized shows including The National Oil and Acrylic Painters Best of America Shows, the International Society of Acrylic Painters shows, the PleinAir Salon, and the Art Muse Contest and numerous online shows. I am a member of the Board of Directors for the “National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society” and for “Artcite” an artist-run, nationally recognized gallery in Windsor, Ontario, where I live. I am also a Signature Member of the “International Society of Acrylic Painters.”
Painted from inspiration and imagination after visiting, painting, and photographing marshes in South Carolina.
One of my favorite quotes:
Marc Chagall said, “If I create from the heart, nearly everything works: if from the head, almost nothing.”
Sometimes we are so moved by the beauty we observe in nature that we are stopped in our tracks and are overcome with a feeling of reverence and awe. We are lifted out of our everyday concerns and live totally in that moment of wonder and grace. We feel like we are in harmony with everything around us.
We, as artists, have the opportunity to bring this feeling into people’s lives though the art we create. Art can bring people to a moment of discovery, a moment of awe, a moment of feeling so uplifted and connected to what we are expressing that tears are brought to their eyes.
All boundaries, all preconceived ideas, all judgments we create in our minds are resolved and only a feeling of being connected to the sublime exists in these moments.
As artists, we have a need and a passion to express the beauty we experience all around us … in nature, in the creation of the body, in the simplicity of form and function. Maybe we also have the opportunity to inspire a vision in others as to what possibilities exist to add to the beauty in the world, through a desire to express our vision through the arts.
This desire is universal and brings the world together in a way no other endeavor does because it doesn’t create division – it unifies.
How does art create unity for you? Comment in the space below and share your thoughts.
Ober-Rae Starr Livingstone has previously won Third Place in the PleinAir Salon bi-monthly art competition for his landscape oil painting, “Feeling Your Touch.” The next PleinAir Salon deadline is coming soon. Visit PleinAirSalon.com to enter your best work today!
Let Daniel Gerhartz teach you how to paint with this art video workshop!
As Gerhartz works his way through this studio painting from start to finish, he gives an in-depth discussion as to his technical approach and what aesthetically inspires him.
Learn about the oil painting workshop “Her Mother’s Locket” here!
