Get ready to go on an Artful Adventure with us. Explore shape, collage, pattern, color and MORE, seeking inspiration from one of my all time favorite artists: Henri Matisse! From the get go, we’ll learn about Matisse’s artwork and life, and then we’ll dive right in to 4 technique lessons with creative ways to translate his signature style into your own unique art journaling and artwork.
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Check out the promo video to get a sneak peek at this Artful Adventure:
In addition to investigating Matisse’s style, we’ll also play with the unique paper cut out artform, explore color palettes, learn how to create with a monoprint painting technique, and much much more. Let the Artful Adventures begin!
Hello from my Creative Squad! Today we have a post and video from Riikka Kovasin who is sharing an art journal page that takes an artwork and subject matter and makes them all her own with my Fairview Fan foam stamps, ATC Mixup stencil, and Mesa Verde stencil. Our theme: Favorite Art – My Way – Look at a favorite work of art and create something inspired by it, drawing from the colors, shapes, subject matter, feeling etc. that strikes you most when you look at it.
The Whole World is a Garden
Heippa! It’s Riikka Kovasin here today to share my take on the “Favourite art – my way” theme. Like I say in the video, I again struggled a bit in the beginning. This time the trouble was to narrow down the options!
Choosing a Finnish artist was a must for me. At first, I thought about a female artist, but didn’t want to go with Helene Schjerfbeck. For one, I wanted to highlight someone maybe not as known and secondly, I’ve already used her art to inspire me a couple of times (check out an example here). My second choice was a lady, who’s photo is always on my craft table, Ellen Thesleff. I love her work, but none of the pieces really jumped up to me this time and was like “me, redo me!”. The reason for this might also be that I’ve used her art before as well here. Back to the drawing board it was!
I then decided to take a totally different approach to the subject and let a tool do the deciding for me. Like I say in the video, since I got the “Fairview Fan” foam stamp set, I’ve seen the other stamp as a skull. I have been eyeing it before, thinking about a Halloween card, but had not yet jumped to the idea. So, now was the perfect time! After deciding on the skull, it was then easy to pick up the artist and artwork.
Death, as a personification, is a re-occurring character in the works of Hugo Simberg. He’s not a scary character but more a bit lost and an outsider. In some ways he reminds me of the Death in the Discworld series, not quite getting the ways of men. My favorite piece with Simberg’s death character is a painting called “Kuoleman puutarha”. The subject was so dear to the artist himself that he did several versions of the piece. What I used as my reference here, is made in 1896, a small gouache and watercolor work. You can read more about the piece here (link) and about the artist here (link).
In the painting, there’s three death characters caring for the plants in their garden. While my favorite of the three is the one on the left, leaning on the workbench, watering the plants, I chose to make a version of the second character, the one in the center. He’s the one who usually gets pointed out as the posture of the character is so tender, almost fragile. My character doesn’t have the same fineness of the posture, but I hope the atmosphere still comes across!
If you’d like to see, how I made the page, please see the video below. If you want to jump directly to the making process and avoid the introduction, the process starts at 1:08.
What I used in my piece, besides the obvious character, was the warm honey toned color scheme. Like I said earlier, Hugo Simberg did several versions of the subject, but as they are mostly black and white, they are missing the warmth of the watercolor piece that inspired me. Another colored version of the “Kuoleman puutarha” is at Tampere Cathedral. The colors are a bit different in it as well, as it’s a fresco, painted on the cathedral wall.
While the original artwork has an abundance of strange plants, I depicted those in my take more uniformly. The background flowers represent the other plants in the garden, while I highlighted the bluebell-styled flora as it’s the one the character is holding.
I hope you don’t get frightened by this character but rather find him endearing! Thank you for stopping by today!
Xoxo Riikka
Thank you Riikka for sharing your brainstorming process and also your beautiful take on a subject that is not often represented in such a tender way!
This study for a painting depicts a Synagogue that is now a Baptist Church in my neighborhood – a very intriguing building. I used spray paints, my new fav Caran D’ Ache water soluble pencil set, Art Graf water soluble tailor chalk, and a black fine Posca marker. I also used my Hydrant rubber stamp to help set the scene.
I love the history you share with your ‘strolls’ and your ART.
Sharing what you see and what you have learned…things I would never see or know
without you.
THANKS
One of those wonderful weekends in August we took a walking tour through Harlem (and yes it is debatable if you would call all of those areas Harlem nowadays but historically that was the premise). I am following Keith Taillon on instagram and he was my highlight during the pandemic (and still is) . He decided to walk all of Manhattan during the pandemic and took us on this journey with lots of historic and fun stories and ever since he now offers walking tour, I knew I wanted to join- because you know I love my “Strolls Through the Hood” .
I am not giving away all of the tour …it would be impossible anyway- the wealth of information presented in a wonderful storytelling and knowledgable manner during the 3.5 hour walk is sheer too much for a blogpost. But I also think if you ever should be in NYC- just take a tour with Keith – he is worth every penny – and if you cannot, follow him and wait for his book to be published and then buy it ;) Anyway- here are some impressions, after we met at Grant’s Tomb on Morningside Drive.
Loved this iron fence – can’t get the artist looking for patterns out of me ;)
We strolled through the Columbia University Campus – behind us a row of fun students applauding the new students moving in …I cannot remember this kind of applause when I went to university in Hamburg, but then we are also not known to be outbursts of emotions up in North Germany ;)
Lots of amazing information about the campus and history of the campus which used to be the grounds of The Bloomingdale Asylum – where many wealthy, including the Vanderbilts – liked to “house” their nonconforming family members. Site note: The spikes on the entrance lamp are impressive no?
We spent some time around the impressive and interesting and well …unfinished Cathedral of St. John the Divine. The construction started in 1892 – and only 2/3 are done …I feel that is actually not too bad …given that European Cathedrals have always taken a long time and La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona started about 10 years earlier is also still unfinished …
There is just sooo much about this Church – Dizzy Gillespie and Aretha Franklin amongst others performed here, the facade. Def. want to come back and take a closer look when it is open and no red carpet blocks a closer look at the doors and statues (that is another story)
Next to the Cathedral is the Peace Fountain. There is a lot of stuff going on here- let me say I mostly took away something I didn’t know: “Giraffes are a Symbol for Peace” .. take that Picasso …done with the dove
Another interesting little stop amongst many was the Church of Notre Dame – built in 1916 …you wouldn’t know LOL
and decked with a replica of the grotto where the Heavenly Mother appeared to St. Bernadette in Lourdes, France in 1858. Impressive …
It was a wonderful day for a walk and seriously I wouldn’t have minded having a little cocktail afterwards on the ivy balcony of this gorgeous building later. Alas …we weren’t invited.
Wonderful town and apartment houses along our way and this one made me stop hard …as I recognized in the top of the window some Belcher Mosaic Stained Glass windows. Why? Well..we do have some too and I can now recognize them when I see them. Given that they were only made for a couple of years and with a really cool stencil technique, I am obsessed. Fear not …I will probably write in the future a whole blogpost about those windows, as ours are in terrible shape and need restoration.
I love how Keith made us look at those two houses showing the difference of eras – Brownstone on the left vs. Limestone more airy on the right.
Peeling paint over the facade
Lots of streets reminded me of our city- and my neighborhood. The history of Harlem is complicated, layered and …important to know about.
Keith was so kind to make a tiny detour to go to this stop as we do have the very famous photo “A Great Day in Harlem” hanging in our house. 57 Jazz Musicians gathered for a photo by Art Kane in front of this house in 1958. Amongst them Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, Count Basie, and Lester Young.
As for the building – I wonder if the cornice was still there when they took the photos in 1958
My favorite part of the photo are the kids that just joined the fun :)
Astor Row was my favorite street by far on this walk – beautiful beautiful houses, wonderful street – I would move in in a hard beat!
Funny little creatures
Glorious houses on Sugar Hill – “
You must take the “A” train To go to Sugar Hill, way up in Harlem If you miss the “A” train You’ll find you missed the quickest way to Harlem”
Besides the gorgeous stoop – look at those plants …#plantgoals
I felt sorry for the tree being caged in but isn’t it amazing how natures takes it back if you let it?
And last but not least a photo of Alexander Hamiltons house- not at it’s original spot – it was twice moved – but alas the house was saved.
It was indeed a great day in Harlem – I learned a ton, read a lot since I came back and I found it inspiring that there are others with a big thirst for the stories and buildings of their neighborhood are out there. This wasn’t the last tour I booked with Keith – that is for sure! Cannot wait for the next one :)
Last month our Creative Squad member Judi Kauffman shared her lovely little stenciled lamp journal with us (check out the full post here) and in the process, caught the eye of a friend. Sometimes you create something and at that moment the project is complete… until you decide that you could take it further LOL. Well, that’s just what happened here and we thought it would be fun to share the update with you.
First let’s look at that sweet project from last month:
W O W !!! Look at allll that color! Here is what inspired the update:
“My friend in California whose birthday is coming up fell in love with it, but said I had to do “more” to it because she thought it should have COLOR…”
We love it Judi! The lamp light is glowing, the details enhancing the sparkle, and the color palette is very Mid Century cool!!!
Thank you Judi for sharing your color update with us!
A Look Back – Lots of times I’ll reach for a stencil when I want a quick background in an art journal or mixed media piece. Pair a stencil with some acrylic spray paint or acrylic paint and a makeup sponge and it’s almost instant success. But then there are times where I want the background to be a bit more complex and I’m not in the mood to start layering in lots of collage papers or stamped impressions. Layering on another stencil is my secret weapon in these cases. Let me show you some examples:
In this art journal page I chose my Signals and Space Age Modern stencils to layer on in warm colors. The scales are similar in terms of the marks and it doesn’t really read as two patterns, but one more complex pattern. I think it’s a nice effect. You can see the entire spread here.
I love finding two patterns that can work together in my stencils and I did that here in this art journal page with my Chicago and ATC Mixup stencils. I first put down the Chicago pattern with a blending tool and one color of Distress Ink, then used one design on the ATC Mixup stencil in the diamond part of the Chicago stencil with another color of ink. Instant complexity. Then I also took it further with one of my Fan-fare rubber stamps and a dot from my eraser.
Two more stencils that seem born to layer? Beacon and Toledo – the patterns just line right up. This is also a cool combination because the Beacon is a delicate design and Toledo so dense. I definitely recommend putting the dense design down first as your base and then the delicate one on top to add details to the layered pattern. Check out the full art journal spread here.
Here I used Hamburg and Chicago and I like how they are similar in line weight and all those right angles, but obviously not the same. The tension between the two stencils totally activates the page. It’s like a hole in the one pattern and a patch job that doesn’t quite match. Here’s the post so you can see the whole spread.
Here’s another example of two layered stencils that also have similar line weights, and it makes for a pretty interesting combination. It gets a bit confusing as to what pattern is what and I like that. For this page I used Flower Maze and Exchange Place, all of it in warm colors. You can see the full spread here in the original post.
So there you go: some ideas on layering stencils for when you want a nice way to oomph up those backgrounds.
A Look Back is a blog series to show you some projects and posts that you may have missed – sometimes going WAY back in the archive. I think it will be fun to revisit a few ideas that we haven’t seen for a while. I’m excited to see how a little look back might inspire something new in the future :)
Here are some of the supplies used in these projects:
Hello from my Creative Squad! Today we have a mysterious and serene art journal spread from Maura Hibbitts using my Art Deco Fairview, Batik, and Tokyo stencils and my Fairview Fan rubber stamp for our new theme: Favorite Art – My Way – Look at a favorite work of art and create something inspired by it, drawing from the colors, shapes, subject matter, feeling etc. that strikes you most when you look at it.
For reasons I don’t completely understand, I’ve been drawn to “Smoke of Ambergris” by John Singer Sargent, since I first saw this painting in a museum. Usually, bright colors call to me, but this painting is soaked in neutrals. Maybe it’s the hints of far off lands seen in the echo of architecture and floor tile. Maybe it’s the feeling of serenity as the woman lifts her veil over the brazier. There is a mystery here that is both simple and complex, an insight into another time and place, that intrigues me.
I began by brushing chalky grey gesso up and down my art journal pages, leaving some open areas. Next, I added a layer of translucent white paint, again using vertical strokes, to mimic the vertical lines in the painting. I also felt like this created the hint of shadows.
I added a stenciled layer to the dry background using Nat’s Tokyo stencil and pale gold paint. I like to use a cosmetic sponge for this step, and you always want to use a light touch with the paint to keep the design crisp.
Next up, another stenciled layer. This time, I used Nat’s Art Deco Fairview stencil and a blend of titan buff and burnt umber paints. The layers are building…
Cut a figure out of a magazine or catalog and adhere to the page using collage medium. I added a word sticker over a label on the clothing. I chose this particular figure for the neutral clothing.
I added a bit of stenciling to the dress using Nat’s Tokyo stencil and titan buff paint.
On a piece of watercolor paper, paint it with titan buff and let dry. Next, stamp Nat’s Fairview Fan stamp onto it, using ground espresso distress ink (or any brown ink).
Smudge quinacridone gold paint around the figure and let dry. Edge the figure with a graphite pencil, then use a water brush to create a shadow.
Add three vertical stripes on the opposing corners of the pages with Nat’s Batik stencil and quinacridone gold paint.
Cut the stamped image into a hat to represent the veil in the painting. Also add a portion to the dress.
Hand letter some words to the open page with a brown Posca pen. I chose the words “A sense of mystery in our daily life.” I feel the mystery in the painting “Smoke of Ambergris”, but also sense this is a ritual for the woman in the painting. I wanted to echo the neutral tones of the painting and vertical lines, as well as bringing in a hint of the east into my art journal. Get inspired by a favorite piece of art and create! Maura
Thank you Maura! I love that painting too and how you interpreted the color palette and elements is very pleasing to the eye :)
Give it a try: you can find all my Stencils and Rubber Stamps in my Online Shop and in addition to her magazine image, here are some of the supplies Maura used:
Looking for more projects? Follow the Creative Squad on Instagram here.
Today, Sept 5 is the LAST DAY to save with our Labor Day Workshop Sale and Last Chance Sale!!! Refuel your creative side this fall with an online mixed media workshop. Just enter the coupon code laborday20 to save 20% off all my Online Workshops*. In addition to that, it’s your last chance to sign up for Creative JumpStart 2022 and right now it’s just $59.
Jump into something new and fun and challenge yourself to make a commitment to your creativity. See you in the classroom!
*Sales end Monday Sept 5 2022 at 11:59pm EDT (NYC time). 20% off sale excludes CJS22.
It’s that Back to School season where I think we’re all ready for new experiences, hungry for a challenge, and excited about learning. I always like to begin the fall with some nourishment for the mind and an Online Workshop is an easy way to jump into something that you know will be both fun AND good for the artistic side of the brain.
My Labor Day Sale is running now through Monday Sept 5th* and offers 20% off all my Online Workshops. Just use the coupon code laborday20 to save.
AND in addition to all the Online Workshops being on sale, I’m also offering a Last Chance Sale for CJS22 for just $59. I’m going to be taking a little break from this program for a while so it’ll also be your last chance to get a full CJS workshop for a while – better sign up ;)
Here is just a small selection of some of the workshops I’ve got going now – Artful Adventures, Best of CJS bundles, project workshops, and super cool ensemble cast workshops:
Be sure to check out the Online Workshop section of my shop – there are even more to choose from to inspire you and exercise your creative side this fall and beyond.
*Sale ends Monday, September 5th 2022 at 11:59pm EDT (NYC time). 20% off excludes CJS22.
I love the history you share with your ‘strolls’ and your ART.
Sharing what you see and what you have learned…things I would never see or know
without you.
THANKS
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