About Syman Kaye
How my painting arrived at the point it is today
Fast, loose, lazy and impatient
When it come to painting in watercolours anyway. I have always wanted to “get things done” and in pursuit of this goal I have learned ways of saving time and effort while painting quickly and achieving the goal of producing a painting. My advice is just get it done. If you want to learn to paint, learn to paint, it’s easy; you just have to want to. Can’t draw? No problem, I got drawings for you to copy or trace until you can. No Talent? No worries, it doesn’t take talent, it just takes practice.
A little History and insight
My early work was almost exclusively abstract.
My early work in watercolours was almost exclusively abstract, I would paint large areas of texture using watercolour and various watercolour mediums like Gum Arabic and Ox Gall liquid to affect the way the paint moved on the page. All I was interested in for many years was the shapes and textures that I could create. One day I decided to paint a set Blue Tits using the textures I knew I could create and combining them with a bird shape and a few select details. Something just clicked, it wasn’t about painting a bird it was about making abstract patterns look like a bird. That one painting inspired me to paint other animals and it’s how my journey into Painting Wildlife in Watercolour started. The next big milestone that started my career as a professional artist was selling my first piece. I created a limited edition print and uploaded it to Etsy, just the one painting (which was a mistake) and it sat there for almost a year. I was carrying on being a photographer and web developer and painting in spare time then one day I got the famous Etsy “Cha-Ching” sound from my mobile 🙂 Someone had bought a print. That really was a sliding doors moment (Thank you to the person that bought that print) I realised that with a bit of effort and late night painting I could make money from my art. That really kickstarted my painting in a serious way.
Skip a few years of hard work, marketing, painting and self promotion (not something I enjoy) and my artwork is now sold all over the world, reproduced under licence by museums and galleries in several countries and provides me with a living. The Uk’s National Trust also licence several images a year for their stationary range.
I had a brief but englightening foray into teaching A level photography. I loved it, well parts of it. I wanted to teach my students how to become photographers not how to pass a photography exam. I found the ciriculum restrictive, outdated and for the most part irelevant to being a practicing photographer. Looking back at my art training I now see the same thing happened to me, my teachers got me through exams. They did a pretty good job too considering my extra corricular activities were hadly conducive to a fully focused mind during lessons (I’ll leave you to emagine 😉 ). What I wanted to teach was the practical skills they needed to be a photographer not irrelevant ciriculum BS. The same applies to my art training today, I want to give you the skills to become and artist not a person that can paint. All you have to bring to the table is the desire to learn.
I studied art and photography at school (GCSE) then at college (A levels), then a year foundation degree, essentially a year of playing with concepts and materials, drawing, sculpture, paint, photography, print, installation art etc. etc.) From there I did a 2 year HND in Photography. In 2003 I set up Perceptive Photography providing commercial, portrait and wedding photography. Perceptive Photography is still running although I now only do commercial photography. I have continue to paint throughout my life in various mediums and styles. It was in 2016 that I found animals in watercolour and something just clicked, a few hundred animal paintings later and the story continues…
This about sums up my philosophy to most stuff, find your Ikigai and everything else falls into place. Kind of fitting that it works like a colour wheel too 🙂
There’s one other philosophy I try to live by and that is…
“There are three ingredients to success… attitude, attitude, attitude.”
Can you guess what the 3 ingredients of failure are?
purpose built and equipped
The Studio
Join me in my studio and I’ll guide you through every step, stage and technique I use. If you take your time and follow the tutorials, you’ll be painting animals in watercolours in no time. We have 6 camera set up so every angle is covered,
- Front camera – so I can talk to you
- Pallet View – so you get to see my whole working space including pallet, test sheet, water pots etc.
- Painting View – close up of just the painting from above
- Left side- close up of the painting from the left side, like you’re looking over my shoulder
- Over the shoulder – Ipad view
