Meet Lisa George, a 20-year-old student of Bachelor of Visual Arts from College of Fine Arts Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath who started selling her artwork in the pandemic. The lockdown has proven to give birth to many passions, workspaces, and self-discoveries, but for Lisa, it acted as a catalyst to better her best.
Speaking on the beginning of her journey with pencils and pages, Lisa informed that she has been drawing and colouring ever since she was a child. “I went to drawing classes from 2nd standard to 5th standard. The classes really helped me develop basic drawing and sketching skills,” she said.
Lisa began to post her artworks on Instagram in 2014 which drove her to be more consistent with the creation of art. She asserted that she was inspired to start painting from seeing other artists on Instagram and soon began to practice watercolour painting. Although over the years her inspiration and style have changed, she maintained that she is always in awe of nature and draws immense inspiration from still life and the simplicity of everyday objects. “Lately I’ve just been inspired by what I see, if I go out for a walk and sight a beautiful tree, or I stay at home and observe an ant crawling on my sink. Basically anything that catches my eye,” she added. Such foundations for her art make it unique and extremely different from other artworks.
In conversation about monetising her passion, Lisa asserted that financial stability for a young artist is not possible to achieve not only in India but also around the world. “This is possible only when you diversify. For example some of my artist friends might do photography work, graphic design work, YouTube etc, on the side because depending on just selling artwork is not feasible when you are starting out,” she advised.
The role of the pandemic
In the start of the year 2020 when the pandemic caused everyone to stay at home, Lisa was able to get more time to paint. “During last year, I probably did more painting than I ever had before. During this time I could just stay at home and do what I loved to do everyday. But after a prolonged pandemic into 2021, I unfortunately got Covid. After recovering, finding motivation to create art was difficult. So it was an up and down journey for me just like everyone else. Right now I’m back to enjoying and creating art again,” she affirmed.
Role of social media
Lisa mentioned that social media was the reason she started to paint and draw more consistently.
“I also learned so much through the social media art community. It’s great to hear input about your paintings after you’ve posted them. Validation helps a lot. Social media also helps in marketing and finding customers,” she said.
Breaking stigmas and stereotypes
How frequently do you think Indian parents allow their children to pursue art? Not so often. Lisa asserted that her parents have been incredibly supportive with her wish to study and pursue art and they have encouraged her too. “However not everyone thinks that doing art full time is smart and they have been confused about my decision. There have been times when people have asked what I’m studying and I say ‘Fine Arts’ but they conveniently mishear it as ‘Finance’. Also, people automatically think I must be poor at studies because I study Humanities (which I’m not). After I joined my Arts college I found more people like me and felt like I fit right in,” she said.
Some favourites
Speaking of her favourite type of paintings to indulge in, Lisa revealed that in the past it used to be watercolour, but lately, she’s been getting into gouache and acrylic paint.
“I’m trying to learn newer mediums and it’s been really fun trying them out. I love watercolour painting because of how the colours just naturally blend into each other and it is quite difficult to replicate. I also like an opaque medium like acrylic because the colours are so vibrant and rich,” she said. She also revealed that she really enjoyed woodcut printing, despite the difficulty in carving wood, but the result gave her much satisfaction.
Digital art: An emerging competition?
The art industry is quite huge and it is different in different countries. “If we are talking about traditional art, it is more viable to sell oil or acrylic paintings compared to watercolour. These huge paintings are frequently seen in galleries. Online, on Instagram for instance, smaller paintings or prints can be sold since the target market is different,” she explained.
Lisa maintained that she doesn’t see digital art as a major competitor to traditional art. She added that they are quite different and one is not better than the other. “People have the misconception that digital art is easy, I find it way harder. I honestly don’t have the best knowledge about the digital art community,” she disclosed.
Head held high
Lisa was able to exhibit one of her artworks in Venkatappa Art Gallery in April this year! “It felt incredible to be part of a collection with other great artists,” she said. Lisa intends to complete her degree and continue to create such ‘almost-real’ artworks.
