Magical Journal Journeys / Month 2

Stephanie's chosen artist for her journal is Marc Chagall.
I had so much fun studying his work. He had some kind of wild mind,
and I couldn't begin to mimic his style!

So I just incorporated some of his imagery, of which there is plenty
that appear over and over in his work.

Brides and grooms. Horses. Birds. Music. Flying. Villages.
 His native village of Vitebsk appears in so many of his paintings.

As does his wife Bella. “Her silence is mine, her eyes mine.
It is as if she knows everything about my childhood,
my present, my future, as if she can see right through me.”
(from his book, My Life)

Stephanie's pages are shaped like houses!

I ended up making my pages 2-page spreads so
I sewed them together with red thread.

The cover is a collaboration among the first four artists.
My part is the flying horse with an umbrella.
I have no idea how a horse holds an umbrella.
Maybe duct tape!

Chagall was referred to as "the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century"
(though Chagall saw his work as 'not the dream of one people but of all humanity').
An early modernist, he was associated with several major artistic styles
and created works in virtually every artistic medium, including
painting, book illustrations, stained glass, stage sets,
ceramic, tapestries and fine art prints. (wikipedia)

Marc Chagall died in 1985, at nearly 98 years old.

The challenge is eye glasses

Spectacles

The challenge at Inspiration Avenue this week is  

Eyeglasses

I altered a piece I did a few years ago for a self portrait challenge.

I did have glasses on, but not these cool round ones.

So, after the addition of new eyes, a new nose and new mouth,

it's definitely not me anymore, but it does fit the Glasses challenge :-) 

 Head over to Inspiration Avenue to check the other entries.

IA Weekly Challenge ~ Eyebrows

Pale Ladies

Two more small canvases, this time for the 

Eyebrows challenge at Inspiration Avenue.

I was hoping the pale faces and dark backgrounds

would emphasize their eyebrows.

I had fun painting these 2 ladies. I had to stop myself

from fiddling with them too much, trying to make them perfect.

The more I tweaked them, the more I saw 

their personalities begin to fade away.

A great reason to stop and call them done!

Go check out the Eyebrows!

Tiny Canvases

When in a slump . . . start small?

For a week, I've been wandering into my art room,

staring at my unfinished pieces,

and not getting a bit of inspiration. nada. nothing.

So I dug out some little 4x4 canvases and just started covering them with paint.

I think that's just what you have to do when your muse has gone on vacation.

I don't think she's happy that I've hauled, er, ‘enticed’ her back 

from where-ever-she-was (she always takes better vacations than I do), 

but I think she's warming up to the idea of being back :-)

I'm having fun with these. I'll have to move on to something larger

since I am running out of mini canvases, but I think I'm ready!

I'm joining Paint Party Friday this week.

Please visit over there to see what fabulous art everyone has been doing!

I've been thinking about an art sales concept 

I've heard people discussing called "Pay What You Want".

It does seem a bit crazy because you do not put a price on the piece

and invite buyers to pay what it is worth to them. 

(Maybe charge for shipping and materials cost, or not even that)

Really nuts, you say ~ you might as well just give it away, right?

But plenty of people have said it works for them!

They say people are inherently generous.

I think this is probably true, especially of people who collect art.

Has anyone tried this or know of someone who has?

I'd love to know your thoughts on it!

I'm thinking it might work on something like these.

I'm no good at pricing anyway, and these are so small...

Easter is coming! 

This crazy chick already has a little bunny tail.

I think he needs some fake bunny ears to go with.

Don't forget to visit PPF!

Have a great weekend!

Channeling Georgia O’Keeffe

The first month of our art journal swap!

Going in our usual order, I have Gemma's book first. 

We've each selected artists for our books and Gemma's artist is Georgia O'Keeffe.

Panic!! I was (am!) very intimidated by Georgia O'Keeffe. Her style is so precise.

And perfect. Perfectly precise and gorgeous.
The exact opposite of my style, whatever that is :-)

The O'Keeffe paintings I'm most familiar with are all

landscapes, flowers, or abstracts.

So I did one of each in Gemma's book...

There is a place in New Mexico called Shiprock.

I don't know that Georgia O'Keeffe ever painted Shiprock (maybe too touristy for her),

at least I gather it's a bit of a tourist attraction...I've never been there.

Sadly I've only driven through New Mexico, and never got to stop.

 The foreground drove me nuts, and I wondered how in the world I would be able
to fill the rest of the page before March was out! That's when I got the brilliant idea
to create the rock out of tissue paper and paint. The process sped up considerably!

And I found in my stash some incredible green paper with gold fibers in it.

LOVE the way it tore to look like dry desert plants!
I received something wrapped in it and saved it for the perfect use.
I think it may have been Kat who sent it?
 
Georgia's quote, which proves how different she must have been to me:

“You know I never feel at home in the east like I do out here ~ 
and finally feeling in the right place again ~ I feel like myself and I like it.”

The desert has never welcomed me...I feel uneasy in the desert
and miss the lush greens of the east.

But once I started putting these pages together,
I could see that there is much beauty in the desert. I know Gemma loves it,
and posts the most awesomely beautiful photos of the landscape!

So on to the next page...
I have posted this before when it was a WIP.
Hasn't changed too much except for the quote
and a bit more done on the green parts.

And last...but should have been first lol ...
my portion of the front cover of Gemma's book.

We have 8 artists total, and the first 4 will collaborate on the front cover
and the last 4 will work on the back cover. My portion of the front
is in the lower right corner. I rather copied one of Georgia's abstracts.
I originally thought to use the design and maybe change the colors.

Then I realized that the colors she chose
and the placement of them were perfection.
What a genius she was!
Changing colors would have thrown the whole thing off in my eyes.
So I used her colors for the most part.

Georgia O'Keeffe's painting.

Mine is flat and hers has so much more depth
and shading. Maybe someone will add a bit more
to make mine look better...?

So, I'm looking forward to receiving the next journal,
which is Stephanie's. Her artist is Chagall.
More challenges! I feel more comfortable with Chagall.
But I may be surprised just like I was with O'Keeffe...

Weekly Art Challenge

The challenge at Inspiration Avenue this week 

is brought to us by Kim. It's a fun one called

Inner Child Art

I made a quick slideshow of the progression of

my childlike artwork

(This was only my second video, and while I was making it, 

I think I said a few words my inner child had not heard of :-)

But no matter, here is the finished product.

 

I'm calling her "Teacher".

I always loved a teacher who made learning fun.

Stop over at Inspiration Avenue to see 

the other Inner Child creations!

Mixed Media?

 A layered background ready for some finishing touches . . .

This has caught the corner of my eye every time I've walked past it 

in the basement for years. I always think ~ hmmmmm, so grungy . . . 

but I kind of like it!

Maybe it's the touches of pink and blue reminding me of a sunset . . .

Today I hauled it out and snapped a picture.

Can you tell what it is?

Right!

an old skateboard.

Probably took Jesse only 2-3 months to reach this level of destruction.

He used to skate every day.

Finally the board snapped and that was that.

I always wondered why skateboards had such elaborate graphics 

on the bottom when the very first thing that happened to them was obliteration.

Not sure why it was hanging around the basement, but

there's lots of stuff like that down there.

Even some more defunct skateboards, which I will check out.

Have you ever walked by something totally unrelated to art

and immediately had creative thoughts about it?

I've been doing that a lot lately . . .

Happy Monday, and Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Hope you have a good week!