Now we're getting somewhere

You know sometimes what I need more than anything is just to fill in a lot of the white space. My inclination is to finish each little flower before moving on but even if I do, I look around at this big white page and feel like I've made no progress whatsoever. 

So after filling in a lot of the lower green spaces, I'm feeling a little better. I tried to keep it loose but I'm not sure I accomplished that. Hopefully the background doesn't take away from the flowers - I don't want to give everything equal attention or there's nowhere for your eye to rest. But my husband does assure me that it's only my eyes that go a little buggy looking at it, which by the way, is a good sign it is time for bed. And look at the time! My eyes are so right.

WIP Day 3

A little bit at a time. Slightly discouraging but I've been getting less than two hours a night and the painting takes time but so does the thinking! I'm changing this:

 

into this:

with a little help from this:

So many decisions. So many colors to balance. So much needing to sleep.

Day 2

Unfortunately my youngest two have decided sleeping is overrated. They're seriously messing with my sanity and my painting time, which are sometimes related come to think of it.

Why do I mention it? It's my excuse for not getting more done but I think the red flowers might end up being my favorite!

P.S. That picture didn't look nearly so awful on my phone! Darn lighting. Sorry for the lack of professionalism but I'm tired and going to bed instead of going back upstairs to get a better picture. Good night!

So Many Flowers

So my aunt commissioned me to do a painting for her! That's good news of course, but I've been super intimidated to give it a start. She showed me pictures she'd taken of a street artist's work and they were gorgeous but very unlike my style. I haven't really had a clue where to start. When I do florals, I do them a la Georgia O'Keeffe, up close and intense. It's what I'm drawn to do and it's honestly what makes them different. I don't really know how to do a large, zoomed out painting that incorporates many different flowers with different colors and things going on. It's a challenge. But after pumping myself up with some good podcasts ("The Unmistakeable Creative" is really inspiring), I had to give it a go. So it has started slow, but I have started. I'm combining images from three different photos that my aunt took at her cousin's flower farm so that I can get better balance of color than any one possessed on it's own. So add that challenge to the table and here we go:

It looks a little better now that I've stepped away from the paper. Isn't that so often the case? Why don't I remember that when I'm in the middle of feeling like it's not going well? Instead I kept painting and eating inordinate amounts of guacamole right before bedtime, which in retrospect, wasn't really the best idea after all. 

Finishing reflection #1

I'm not sure I even know what to say because I'm not at all sure how I feel about it. Possibly done? Possibly needing to make those distant purple mountains less skyish? Possibly needing to break up that crystal clear reflection a bit? 

I may have to let it stew, and see how I feel about it in a week or so after the move. Which means I have no excuse not to be packing boxes. Man I hate packing boxes. 

Reflecting #1 WIP

So the plan was to pack boxes tonight since we move in, oh, one week. But I really needed to paint instead. Yes, I'm procrastinating but at least it's good procrastination and not the kind that saw me scouring the Internet earlier looking for a bed for child #4 and buying a 5 foot giraffe for child #2 instead. That's bad procrastinating. But my scattered brain could not handle working on both the paintings at the same time so I focused on truly making the trees look like trees and on building up richer color so it didn't look too pale and boring. Looking at the picture on here, it seems like I need to tidy up that messy purple mountain on the right. And then lose my marbles trying to reflect all those twisting shapes I painted tonight. It's gonna be rough. But then again, it's either that or packing.

Edvard Munch lesson

I have wanted to do this project on The Scream by Edvard Munch (not pronounced munch, more like munk) ever since I saw it on Pinterest years ago but have never managed to get around to it. So glad I finally did! Here are some fun or interesting facts I learned about the artist and his incredibly famous painting:

- the first version of The Scream was painted without a figure in front! Can you imagine how much less attention it would've received if that was also his final version?

- The Scream does not refer to the figure standing in the front. It's nature that's screaming. Munch wrote, "I was walking along the road with two of my friends. The sun set. The sky became a bloody red. And I felt a touch of melancholy. I stood still, dead tired. Over the blue-black fjord and city hung blood and tongues of fire. My friends walked on. I stayed behind, trembling with fright. I felt the great scream in nature."

- The Scream was embarrassingly stolen, a horrible blow to national pride revealed during the opening ceremonies of the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer. In 50 seconds. The thieves left a note, which read, "thanks for poor security." One of my students said "that sure was snotty!" It was thankfully recovered although the thieves got off on a technicality.

- 10 years later, it was stolen again! In daylight by men in ski masks with weapons. It took them about 20 seconds! They didn't take as good of care of the masterpiece and it was pretty badly damaged when it was recovered two years later. 

- M & M launched a campaign to sell dark chocolate M & Ms using the popularity of The Scream because of the second theft, unveiled like a masterpiece at the Guggenheim, and promised a reward of 2 million dark chocolate M & Ms as a reward for its return.

- The Scream sold for $119.9 million in 2012, during a recession!

I used these books: Famous Works of Art and How They Got That Way, Edvard Munch, The Modern Life of the Soul (has lots of great images to share), and Get Into Art People, Discover Great Art and Create Your Own! 

We then studied a few different versions of The Scream, noting the intense "blood-red sunset," the way his lines flow and the variety of color in every part of the painting. They recreated it with Nupastels and glued the picture of them self screaming on top. 

My first group:

The second group:

I so rarely have students try to copy a painting but I love how different these turned out while still being the same. And with all of them having the same 12 colors to choose from, while doing them side by side. And they had a blast, so I win!