I’m Serra Isabella, a self-taught multidisciplinary painter and writer inspired by the fantastical worlds I’ve seen in nature and in my favorite stories. I primarily work with acrylic and watercolor but have a love for writing stories as well.
I was in college and loved learning but when I was about to finish my associate’s degree in elementary education I was frozen with fear of being an underappreciated, underpaid, and overworked teacher.
So I thought: If I am already preparing and planning for a way not to do something (teaching in my example), why not just plan and prepare for what I actually want to do (create art)?
Creating became my main focus, I used my last semester to take some art and business classes and dove into creating content for my artwork.
My favorite way to start a painting is by slapping some colors on the canvas and mixing in some white to create a vibrant and colorful sky background. There’s nothing like mixing color on the canvas instead of a palette. I find it allows me to find the exact shade of whatever I have stuck in my mind.
Although I love a good sunset picture to reference, you’ll never see me paint an exact and realistic painting. I always love to add a bit of fantasy to the worlds I create.
Some may say my process is chaotic but I don’t like to feel confined to a sketch or reference image. My best work comes from exploring where the painting takes me instead of forcing my idea onto the painting.
And I think one of my favorite artists, Bob Ross, explained it best with “happy little accidents”. I have to let the painting tell the story because every brush stroke is like a line on the page.
Writing has always come easy to me, well as “easy” as writing can come. I just feel a certain ease when the words flow from my fingertips to the page.
And like painting my writing cannot be meticulously planned or outlined. This means the editing stage is a long process of putting together glimpses of the story I am trying to tell.
There’s something so satisfying about being able to tell a story through many different mediums, sketches in the margins, or a little scene written for a painting. Everything I create feels like a piece of a larger story.
I hope my art can give you a glimpse of the beauty and magic of your favorite stories.
