On the Wall with Vera Walton
On the Wall featured artist, Vera Walton said that when she was a child, “art chose me”. Explaining, she continued, “I was always with pencil and paper. I spent a lot of time in stationery stores looking at all the different papers and colours.”
Vera is inspired to paint by her love of nature. She studies people’s emotions for ideas, and sees beauty in everything. Architecture and traditions play a big role, as do the works of other artists.
Her medium of choice is acrylics and her style is “loose”. She found that in the early days her art was full of detail, but as her art matured she prefers capturing the essence of emotion and evoking the feelings of the person seeing her painting for the first time. By creating in this “loose” way, more energy is put into the expression of her art.
“I was always with pencil and paper. I spent a lot of time in stationery stores looking at all the different papers and colours.”
She learns to expand her repertoire by attending workshops and art demonstrations. These sessions are important for her growth as an artist. Learning new techniques allows an artist to explore their creativity and this has proven to be a positive part of Vera’s active art career. Painting in a variety of styles she not only paints on canvas, but has recently created beautiful pieces on silk fabrics.
Challenges Vera faces in the art market are the constraints of the economy, the ignorance of art appreciation and the limitations of local preferences whereby her abstract styles aren’t readily accepted by art buyers who can’t see beyond landscape paintings. Advice she offers new artists is to be inspired by others and try different techniques; take the advice of seasoned artists and learn how to market your art with passion and intensity.
Vera’s art is self-promoted using her network of friends and online, using her website and social media such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. She exhibits at many art shows and has had moderate success. You can visit Vera’s website at www.verawalton.com.
Always eager to learn and participate, Vera is a strong supporter of the arts and has volunteered and advocated on behalf of local artists through communications with her peers and community leaders and as a member of art show committees.
