Creating amazing flowing art, with passion

From a young age, Costa Karas had an artistic and creative side but only as of late, he started to create art on canvas, which led him to open up his own business, named Haus of Pour’ selling his unique and amazing flow art pieces. 

“My interest in flow art started around 3 years ago, which was just by following a couple artists on social media and in the last year or so I started to experiment myself with paint and I created pieces of my own” Costa said. 

Flow art which is also known as paint pouring or liquid art is a form of abstract art that uses acrylic paints with a fluid consistency. As Costa says, “Paint or a combination of paints is poured onto a canvas or art board then I manipulate the canvas by moving it around until I get the design I want or when I'm happy with what has materialised in front of me.”

Costa was first introduced to flow art by his very good friend, an amazing Australian artist Agnes Bruck. She paints using lots of different artistic styles, but there was one that kind of stuck with him. He notes “she was using large amounts of paints and creating some mind-blowing abstract pieces which although completely abstract they had so much depth and emotion in them. So I wanted to give it a go for myself and she encouraged me to do so, to see if I could create something as beautiful as hers. So I think it’s the encouragement of family and friends that gave me the found courage and confidence to pursue my passion to create my own art and which lead and introduced me to flow art.”

The inspiration for Costa’s flow art pieces come from the simplest things in life. “They come from the people around me, what I see, places I visit, life experiences and how I’m feeling. I could be walking down a street in Newtown in Sydney and I see an amazing piece of street art and be inspired by its colours and I create a piece based on that or my mood or feelings that are evoked based on a situation in life or a place that I have visited has also inspired me.”

If there are particular colours Costa likes using, they are the blues and greens as of late, but he does like to use at least one metallic colour in each piece. This is because he feels  metallics “bring an edge and luxe to a piece”. Costa also has a friend in London who runs a forecasting agency and works with designer houses around the world to advise them on up and coming trends and colours, and sometimes he does ask his friend for advice on colour choices, as he maintains it’s always good to be kept up to date and know which  are trending now and upcoming in the future.

Costa believes that being of a Greek background has also “played a huge part when choosing colours, styles, and inspiration for pieces. I find myself referencing Greek mythology when naming some of my pieces and using places I have visited in Greece as inspiration. Blues and whites are quite prominent in my work, guess that says something. My most recent two commissioned pieces which I did for a Greek family in Drummoyne were titled Aegean storm (masculine) and Aegean storm (feminine). They were looking for something that represents them and also a focal point for their home. These pieces were my representation of the Aegean sea during stormy weather. One had more of a masculine feel to it as it was bolder and with stronger lines, whereas other one had a softer feel and more fluidity which reflected a more feminine persona.”

In the last six months, people have shown interest in Costa’s art flow, and have commissioned him to do pieces for them. For him, this has not only confirmed that he just likes what he is doing but so do others who have noticed him and his creative talent. Now he is proud to say he is the owner of ‘Haus of Pour’, with the name of the company deriving from ‘haus’ meaning ‘house’ in German and ‘pour’ which reflects the pouring of paint.

“The thing that makes flow art unique and valuable is the fact that it can never be replicated, it’s a one-off, an original piece, once it’s done it’s humanly impossible to replicate. Yes, it can be printed and copied but the original always be the original.”

For those wanting to purchase one of Costa’s pieces, he notes that he first introduces them into the market via Instagram and Facebook so that way his followers have priority if they wish to purchase his pieces, then a week later they are put on sale on HausofPour.  He also does commission pieces, “as people find it hard to locate an affordable piece of original art to suit a particular room in their homes. Clients come to me with a colour palate and a size in mind and I work with them to create a one-off piece which will have all their guests talking.”

“I believe that flow art is very therapeutic whether you are getting lost in it or getting lost making it”.