PLANO, Tex. (CBS/KTVT) -- Want to see what the art of the future looks like? A Plano artist is already doing it, creating hundreds of drawings many that look like paintings using only the tips of her fingers and an iPad.
Alison Jardine, a British born artist now living in Plano, uses a brush and paint to create images filled with light. Typically, the surface is canvas. Now, she also paints on her iPad. She says, "Makes it feel like you're painting with light. And, all my works are about light. "
Alison, already versatile in her work, taught herself how to create iPad art with a single project:
She drew something on her iPad for 30 minutes every day for a year. She says, "I wanted this to be fun. Short. A sort of daily brain download of how I was feeling. uhm. A visual diary. Some of them were funny. Or, at least I thought they were; exuberant."
There's one particular image that was such a dreadful day. It was related to a gallery. She says, "It's an image of this big black boot coming down on these little tiny people. And that's pretty much. That's me under that boot, you know?"
She drew everything from shells to shoes, impressionistic to realistic. She says, "I really wanted to see my progress and compare the first and the 365th."
Stephen Steinbach has already been teaching students how to sharpen their skills in this new medium at The Art Institute of Dallas. He says, "I thought it was very creative."
Every single piece looked completely different and unexpected. He says, "Some of the pieces were like hyper realistic and some of them were very abstract and very emotional and very vivid in color. I was very impressed."
Is this the future of art? Steinbach says, "This is the future. Yeah. Ten years ago? We were thinking maybe digital art; digital photography would be the future. We weren't' sure. Now it's the standard. And, I think it'll be the same with digital painting. "
He believes the time is coming when his classes will be filled with students who've never picked-up a paint brush, charcoal or colored pencil. Gone too will be the art supplies, the cost, the mess.
While his students have their eyes on a future in graphics and gaming, Alison has kept hers on the fine arts. But unlike paintings that must be viewed in person to appreciate their color, iPad art "is what it is." She says, "They'll see exactly what I've created. I don't think there's been an art medium like that before."
Though it's still in the early stages it can be said that iPad art is a reflection who we are on the current spectrum of technology.
Alison's iPad art is being featured as part of the cultural experience at the London 2012 Olympics.