By Nina Boyd

About a week ago, Caroline Henry, who runs this blog, emailed me a reminder that I agreed to write a post for it. Back at the end of last year (when I had hoped to have one ready!) the plan was to share tips on how an artist could market their own work. But in her reminder email, Caroline suggested that my post focus instead on how my art goes in a completely different direction from most artists - for example, plein air artists, who record and artistically enhance a moment in time that they witness. She then proceeded to note, in a perfectly turned phrase that I will now credit and quote, that I create art “from the imagination, using the rich traditions of myth, legends, folktales, and holiday lore, as well as the complexity of the human mind with all its dreams and fears.”

Caroline, thank you for writing the introduction for me better than I ever could.

*Pull -* Colored pencil on Strathmore toned black paper. All art by Nina Boyd

It is quite touching to hear your work described in such a way. On some level, I know that I create with all those things in mind. Fairy tales and mythology, for instance, have always been part of how I view the world. But I never considered their presence in my art would be so obvious to someone else.

I have been drawing for as long as I can remember. I had really hit my stride with it by high school, and it was during those days sitting at the back of my math and science classes working on my portfolio for AP art instead of paying attention to algebra and chemistry that I first heard the question “How did you come up with that?” I’ve been asked this question again and again over the years since then. People are always trying to guess where my ideas come from. Did I see them on a TV show, did I make and then reference a collage from a magazine…do I use LSD?

I laugh at the last guess, and say: if I have the right music on, I don’t need to be under the influence of anything but my own thoughts.

Don’t get me wrong, I took life drawing like every other art major. My portfolio does contain several “normal” still life scenes. I’ve enjoyed drawing celebrities from photographs and favorite singers from album liner notes, I’ve done my fair share of setting up the old easel outside and attempting to capture a landscape; I’ve created a few pet portraits and even one caricature.

But my favorite way to work will probably always be this:

Take a heaping portion of inner thoughts - a bit of your own and maybe a bit of what you perceive others’ thoughts to be. These thoughts have been percolating all day, after all; might as well put them to good use. Mix well with a sense of symbolism honed by decades of reading, listening to, and watching every story you could get your hands on. Include a generous helping of an inherent love of folk and fairy tales. Add in some of the numinous. Wonder, while you work, where mythology even comes from. Is it a story told to us by our higher selves? Or is it even deeper than that - did it exist before people even arrived to pass its story on? An absolute must, in addition to all of the above: put music on. Headphones only, so you are in your own world. My go-to’s are any score by Danny Elfman, almost any album by Loreena McKennitt or Sarah Brightman; trip-hop, trance, or electronica. The point is the music must create its own sense of place, and take you with it. However you get there, the dive into creating should be so deep that it is hard to swim back up to the real world.

And do you even want to?

Nina Boyd has been an artist her whole life. Growing up, she had the privilege to be raised by parents who appreciated and encouraged the arts in their children. From a very young age, she participated in art classes, contests, and shows. Her love for art, and expressing fantastic worlds through it, grew.
Along with an appreciation of and encouragement in the arts, she was raised to value literature, magic, and nature. She could get as lost in a book as in the view of a sunset or the sound of an owl hooting outside the window.
As an adult, she enjoys creating art with a touch of surrealism more than ever. Her work is recognizable by its vivid colors, delicate line work, and tributes to fantasy. As with most things, she finds inspiration when the right music is on.
Nina Boyd earned her Bachelor’s of Art in California. She lives with her husband and cats in the Central Valley, where she is an active member of the local community art center.
Visit her fantastical worlds at https://www.ninaboydart.com/

“How did you come up with that?”

Plein Air Painting: Tips, Tools and Tricks Part 3