James Flynn

I would like to share with you a feeling which some people may be able to relate to...

As an artist, my biggest desire is to show my art to as many people as possible. Now, what I paint very much depends on what mood I am in, what is going on at that given time, or what message I am trying to convey. But a problem that artists come up against when establishing ourselves is that an artist has to have an identity, a style that everyone can recognize. Although I can see a style with my work, that is recognizable, what I actually paint, varies greatly. For example, looking through my paintings that has collected over the past few years, you would see portraits that would be considered - "happy"... this is great, these paintings portray the happy scene which I was trying to capture. However, many of my paintings I would consider to be quite "dark", with reference in particular to my most recent painting, which is almost finished, titled - entering into the realms.... . This painting conveys a pretty dark mood and atmosphere compared to some of my other work, especially some of my "nice" landscapes.

But should it matter about what kind of identity an artist tries to make, personally I am painting exactly what I want to paint, "happy", "sad", "light" or "dark", the reason I am creating it is because I want to, so, it does reflect me, the artist.

Let me know if anyone else has this kind of obstacle sometimes, and whether you think it is better to see a variety of works from an artist, instead of expecting to see a whole room full of paintings conveying just one mood.

Maybe I should include the word "variety" in the name of my exhibition....

Take care

James