Lynne Mizera is an self-taught, mixed media artist living in Creston, British Columbia.

This is her fourth installment in a 4-part series as Artist Strong’s Artist in Residence. You can enjoy more of her art over on instagram @Lynnemizera.

Visit her website at https://www.lynnemizera.com/

At the end of my last post I touched on my discovery of the Mastrius mentorship program in August of 2021 and these past almost two years have flown by as I was being mentored by six different artists and strongly influenced by several more.  My last three posts have all been leading up to how I arrived at this amazing time in my life on my artist’s journey and how the epiphany I had during this process changed completely how I feel about my art and why I can now say without reservation: I am an artist.

Painting a traditional Flower Still Life … Mentor-Veronica Funk 

Mixed Media Flowers – Incorporating what I learned from Veronica Funk into a mixed media piece

The learning curve was very steep and my artist’s soul took a bit of a beating as I realized how much I didn’t know.  It was an inspiring and exhilarating time as I absorbed all this new information and put into words things I had only known intuitively. But to be honest, at times I also felt intimidated and frustrated with the quality of work I was producing, I felt like I was starting all over again and it would have been very easy to quit during these moments of doubt in my own abilities.

I would look at my pre-mentorship work and I would like it so much better than what I was producing now. I wondered if I would ever be able to love my paintings again.  I also found myself continually apologizing for how I painted because my work just didn’t look like everyone else’s.

The View From My Backyard – My attempt at a traditional landscape painting; Mentor-Susan Harrison-Tustain

The View From My Backyard: Incorporating what I learned from Susan Harrison-Tustain and doing it my way

Two landscapes inspired by the style of Artist Julie Deboer

And the techniques learned from Mentor David Langevin

When The Prairies Meet The Mountains: Incorporating what I learned about landscape painting into my mixed media style

It took this amazing community of other artists in my mentorship groups, on the same journey as mine, to help me to realize that having my own unique style was a GOOD thing.  That not using reference photos but painting from my imagination was something everyone else was striving to do and I was already doing it!  That I did not need to or was not expected to paint like my mentor or like anyone else for that matter, and I slowly realized that I could take all this new information and incorporate it into my existing way of painting.  Looking back this all seems so obvious now but while I was on this journey of art exploration and self-discovery I could not see it.

Flower Still Life: working with Mentor Artist Cindy Revell

Flower Still Life: Incorporating what I learned from Cindy Revell with my mixed media techniques

Over the past year and a half I have grown in my art practice, grown in my confidence in my own abilities and I have come to realize that I LOVE the way I paint and I am embracing my own personal style of art.  I have stopped trying to paint in a style that is not mine, producing mediocre and even bad art, and striving to let my artistic voice pour through me in my way.  I have days when the Imposter Syndrome voice kicks in but it is only for a short time and then I look at all my work around me and remember again that I LOVE how I do what I do.

WOMEN’S FACES: Painted after working with Mentor Jean Pederson

WOMEN’S FACES: Jean Pederson challenged me to create a textured mixed media face

This Is Me: A self portrait incorporating what I learned from Jean Pederson into a mixed media face

I continue to be mentored by several artists but now I am learning to incorporate new and different techniques into my own style of painting.  I have recently embraced the medium of watercolour and I am exploring how this very different medium changes the way I paint faces, but in a really exciting way!  Come back next week for a bonus fifth post about my watercolour journey and how I am now embracing the business side of being an artist.

Every couple of months artists show up in our Artist Strong community to share their artistic process, journey, explorations with us over the course of a month.

The goal is to normalize the MANY, VARIED experiences of being an artist.

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