Finding Inspiration

My paintings are meant to provoke thought and emotion through visual stimulation. Finding key ingredients to creating the desired stimulation is what can be most challenging. Personally, artistic inspirations are most often perceived threw natural unexpected surprises. In my work, I tend to overlay a natural world with the man-made one that we have created. I find it fascinating how they are so closely connected, yet maintain such vast differences.
Colors created in nature awe me on a daily basis. Some of the following photos are examples of things that catch my eye and capture my imagination:
(The featured image in this post was a photo I captured at the Birch Aquarium at Scripps)
Sunsets: Everyday the sunrise and sunset shows a great array of color blast across the sky, but only for a brief moment. Holding on to that inspiration can be difficult, but attempting to capture and reproduce it seems even more challenging.

When painting I don’t ever look at sunsets and try to reproduce them. Understanding that enjoying the moment as it is seems to be the best way for me to absorb the emotion.
Nature Awes Me: I find that when I’m stressed getting outside is a great way to decompress. Inspiration can be found all around me, most of the time it is hard to notice without a clear mind.

Our World is Strange: Finding things that don’t seem like they are meant to be is my favorite. I came across the tree shown below about a month ago. It is still wedged there today and doesn’t appear to be going anywhere any time soon.

Needless to say there are countless things that can inspire a person. Whatever it is that inspires you, exploit it in a huge way.
-Bradley K Palmer