Cay Denise

I was playing with watercolor and creating patterns with them recently.  This one started out as a 9-patch of circles with lines connecting each.  It looked quite blahhhhh, although it reminded me of a Tiffany lamp -- the kind with grapes that is somewhat asymmetrical.   First, I considered looking for a Tiffany lamp photo reference, but then decided to draw it by memory for the fun of it.  The lamp and base were drawn with a Sharpie marker and smaller lines made with a Micron pen.  To look at this as a standalone piece, I like it--including the few drips that run toward the base (they were there before the drawing was done).  It is much better as a lamp than as the patterned paper. The photo at the bottom is the kind of Tiffany lamp I had envisioned before doing the drawing in the top photo...a funky abstraction!     

This is a great book!  It didn't take too long for me to feel fully engaged in it, and I loved the short chapters.  The research and timeline (with details) was impeccable while the story, character development, and art heist details were fascinating.  I highly recommend reading this book, especially if you're an artist, art educator, or art connoisseur.  

Having just arrived today, this book of Beatriz Milhazes' works is one of the heaviest books I've ever owned!   Beatriz is a Brazilian artist who does amazing and colorful paintings that are considered modern abstraction with a touch of cultural elements from her life.  Her work actually reminds me of Rex Ray's graphic design/collage pieces.  It's interesting that I was introduced to both artists by Helen Wells, a British artist, whom I follow.   The Milhazes' book is beautiful and contains very nice reprints of selections from her portfolios over the years.  The book is a bit pricey, as Helen puts it, but high quality.  

In a recent email from Wendy MacNaughton, she talked about visiting and shopping at La Maison du Pastel in Paris.  This is a great video about how their pastels are made...from centuries-old, handed-down equipment and processes!

Helen Wells does a very nice job with her online course:  Bold + Fold.  Her instruction focuses on painting botanical impressions and putting them together into a concertina booklet form that she shows how to construct. That said, I'm not a painter of botanicals.  But I gave it a try by doing a fair number of 'floral' impressions in watercolor.  None of them were stand-alone pieces.  But there were bits among a few of them that I liked.  So, rather than creating a concertina, I chose to cut out the bits I liked and created this piece on a blank piece of multi-media paper.   Except for the black of the vase outline and the petal work around the pink circles, the rest were the bits glued on in a floral-like arrangement.  All the elements in the vase were created using different kinds of brushes and brushwork than is my norm.   What the course did for me - was to get me to paint that I haven't done in what seems like a very long time.  Some...