Saturday, June 22, 2013

NATURALS NEUTRALS

I've been perusing paint charts and enjoying the names of the colours:
Anthill Grey,  Elephant Dung,  Kalahari Sand,  Hippo Pool,   
Limpopo,  Zambezi Sand,  Kariba Sunset,  Serengeti Sand ......

They're all beautiful African colours
Take a look at this colour chart here


Rope and Pulleys. Found here

I'm drawn to the naturals
the colour of rope
wheat and haystacks


Patterns in the sand on the east coast of Scotland. Photo by Martyn Gorman. See more here

sun warmed beaches


 Tourner la page by Nathalie Dumonteil. See website here

aged, discoloured papers


Mbuti bark cloth. Exhibition of historic textiles assembled by Seth Siegelaub. See more here

the hues of Mbuti bark cloth


Collage on canvas by Eva Isaksen. See more at the Duane Reed Gallery, here.

Glorious paintings
beautiful art


Her Spring Ribbons (oil and wax on panel) by Jeane Myers. See website here

I don't know much about colour therapy
but I do know the colours that have a calming effect on me.


By Vered Gersztenkorn with Jermaine Passmore. See Vered's paintings on Face Book here.

Natrals and neutrals
give me great satisfaction
 a sense of coming home.

Vered Gersztenkorn. See more here


The Book by Alexander Gurevich. See more here and website here


Ceramic murals by Jeanne Opgenhaffen. Click here to see website 


Jeanne Opgenhaffen is a Belgian ceramicist who creates murals from thousands of fine overlapping porcelain tiles. They remind me of stacks of aged papers.




Jeanne Opgenhaffen

"Color provokes a psychic vibration. Color hides a power still unknown but real, which acts on every part of the human body" - Wassily Kandinsky

See my Naturals Neutrals Pinterest board here

Thursday, June 13, 2013

.... AND SO WE MAKE ART

Graphic artist, Antonio Ladrillo. See website here.

In grade one I was in awe of the little girl who sat at the desk next to mine. 
She drew beautiful horses. 
Real horses! Not just the stick figure variety. 
I couldn't wait to tell my mom when she fetched me from school. "There is a REAL artist in my class!" 

From as far back as I can remember, I have perceived artists to be the most amazing, luckiest, magical people.  

"With the word creative we stand under a mystery. And from time to time that mystery, as if it were the sun, sends down upon one head or another, a sudden shaft of light.... " 
 -- Pamela Travers, Creators on Creativity

Choreographic Drawings by Tony Orrico. See Tony's website here.

Self portrait by South African artist William Kentridge. See more here.

Anselm Kiefer putting the finishing touches to his painting, Journey to the End of Night. Click here

April Zanne Johnson working in her studio. See more here

Abstracts by Conny Niehoff. See website here.

Isabella Ducrot. See website here.

Nnenna Okore. See website here

Neckpiece by fiber artist and sculptor, Jennifer Moss. See website here

Woodfire Ceramic Artist, Ashwini Bhat. See website here

"I gather shapes from the world around me, from travel, and from my journeys through books. I also look inside myself for forms that arise from my experience as a dancer, seeking to rephrase that understanding of the body through a new medium of expression, the body of clay."
 --  Ashwini Bhat

Wood Sculpture by Pilar Ovalle.  Photographer Silvio Lacerda, click here


Joshua Vogel (Photo by Rose  Callahan). See website here

Ariele Alasko makes eye catching furniture from reclaimed wood. See Ariele's website here.

Wood sculpture by Bruno Walpoth. See website here.

Patrick Dougherty. See Patrick's amazing sculpture here.

"Life is so ridiculously gorgeous,
strange, heartbreaking, horrific, etc.,
that we are compelled to describe it
to ourselves, but we can't!
We cannot do it!
And so we make art."
-- Miranda July

Friday, June 7, 2013

Le Palais des arts


At the moment I'm obsessed with decluttering. After cleaning and painting and throwing out anything I haven't glanced at in a year I'm finally sitting in my little think tank/computer room and being able to call it a studio again. 




For a while it lost it's identity midst the mounds of things other people didn't want.  The best thing I did was to ditch the exercise machine which lay supine right in the middle of the room. "Nobody" wanted to get rid of it just in case "Somebody" wanted to use it. Nobody ever did use it. You know the story! Now that it's gone a weight has lifted and I've been inspired to create a little nest where I can carve (though I will still do the messy machine work outside).   All I need is some sort of mat on the floor that will make it easier to clean up the wood shavings and a lamp shade to replace the one that was smashed during the Orbitrek exorcism.




 I've held onto my daughter's old desk which was passed down to my youngest daughter and then to me. It will be a good place to carve. Notice that God and Tom occupy the same space on the desk. 







" There is a ritual in it ....
entering a space that is set up for creative work."  
-  Terri Moore, Art Making and Studio Spaces by Lynne Perrella






This is Cuddly.  He's not nearly as frightening as he looks but he does keep intruders out of my studio ;-)


" My current studio reminds me of the little bedroom I had growing up. In a way, it was my 'first' studio, and it always overflowed with mad experiments, midnight projects, endless tapping on the typewriter, and sliding piles of papers and cardboard. Some things never change!"  Lynne Perrella