Featured Artist: Ona Kingdon

Ona Kingdon is an internationally award winning watercolour artist and will be part of the Studio Tour again this year. We hope you enjoy reading her feature.

Over the last few years people have often said to me "Oh Ona, I wish I could peek inside your creative mind to see how you think of your ideas". Well, be prepared for a wild ride! 

Being an artist is not something I can turn off or walk away from at the end of a work day. Ideas bubble up when I least expect them, usually at the oddest of moments and often in the middle of the night! Events, people, objects, music, the written word, and the natural world around me all inspire me to create. Sometimes one of these things might suddenly connect with another inside my mind and an idea for a painting is born.

I love being able to convey a story, capture feelings or create a sensation of energy with my paintbrush.

 I enjoy tapping into all forms of emotion whether positive or negative. Art has such a wonderful way of encouraging people to challenge their own views, to think about controversial subjects or to remember fun happy times. I want to make people laugh, cry, feel comforted, disturbed, sad, happy, or even angry. It doesn’t have to be the same emotion that I feel when painting the piece either. We each have different experiences in this world and it is these that we tap into when viewing art.

Flight of the Imagination

A good book encourages a young child’s imagination 
to spread its wings and fly free

(Transparent Watercolour)

The idea for a painting begins long before the magical first dab of paint touches the paper. I spend almost as much time planning as I do actually painting; exploring the composition and playing around with different ideas.

Midnight Blues

Maybe you have to know the darkness before you can truly appreciate the light.(Transparent Watercolour)

Colour choice is very important to me and helps me to convey the ‘soul’ of a painting. Every colour, or combination of colours, subconsciously conveys emotion. The strong vibrant reds have such power and energy, blues are more calming. A palette of complimentary colours creates excitement, drama, a more modern contemporary feel and an element of fun in a painting. In contrast an analogous colour palette creates a more loving, calm, inviting, classical feel.

Although I usually have a very clear idea in my mind from the onset what I want to create, the painting journey is full of times when I am unsure of how to proceed, times when I need to stop and think, or times when I make a mistake and have to decide whether to live with it and use it, or to find a way to remove it. Never be afraid of making a mistake. Mistakes are an important part of growth and learning. If you play it safe and stay in your comfort zone you will miss the opportunity to discover and grow as an artist. So take risks and explore. Ask your self questions, Let yourself wonder why, or what if, and enjoy the process.

Watercolour is such a delicate and unforgiving medium but the trials during each painting journey often seem to enhance that feeling of accomplishment at the finish line. It is this journey that I love the most about being an artist.

Accelerando

If you fall behind, don’t give up. Rise up against the odds: Go faster; be stronger and be more determined than ever to succeed.

(Transparent Watercolour)

Ona will be at Covernotes Tea and Coffeee House 10268, Yonge Street in Richmond Hill  (October 15th-16th) for the Studio Tour this year. She hopes to see you there.