Happy Birthday Henry

 Henry Matisse

1869-1954

Henry would be celebrating his 152nd birthday today.

I love his collages.

Wayne Thiebaud- artist

 Wayne Thiebaud

1920-2021

Yes, artist Wayne Thiebaud lived to be 101 years old. Was it his creativity that kept him going?

Wayne began his artistic career as a Disney animator, sign painter, & commercial artist. Is this how he accumulated his 10,000 hours?

But his paintings displayed thick paint & texture showing us the things we love to eat in an innovative way.

  Boston Cream Pie

According to my Betty Crocker Cookbook Boston Cream Pie is actually 2 layers of cake with a filling and whipped cream topping. But this painting can remind us of pies we've had and loved. 

Alex Sez, Merry Christmas

My Christmas trees have shrunk over the years, but they have remained a way to display creativity. Here is my little tree with hand painted watercolor ornaments. It makes an artistic statement.

 

Painted Windows

 I love seeing painted shop windows; they are so old fashioned. And has Santa been on Keto?

Hey Georgia!

Happy Birthday to Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986).

 

Georgia was an American modernist artist, active in the mid 20th century. I would call her the artist who painted beautiful bones.

And yes Georgia, I have been to your home in Abiquiu, NM, to Ghost Ranch, and your museum in Santa Fe, NM at least twice.

Color of the Week

Is there frost on your pumpkin? 

 

National Chocolate Day

 Is chocolate an art form?

Well m&m's do come in bright colors!

Happy Birthday Pablo

 

                                              1881-1973

Would it surprise him, or make him happy that a group of his artwork owned by the MGM/Bellagio Hotel just sold for $110 million? 

Color of the Week

 RUST

Living Color

 The Phillips Building in living color.

Quote of the Week

 "I never get tired of blue sky." Vincent van Gogh

The Art of Collage

 I love collage. So when I heard some disparaging remarks this week about this art form (it's messy, what's the point), I felt obliged to defend it.

Some of the best known (great) artists have worked in collage: Chagall, Picasso, &  Matisse.

What attracts me to collage is the design element, taking found papers & ephemera and arranging them into a pleasing composition.

My latest adventures into collage:

Watercolor paper with acrylic paint, torn, glued & sewn with book pages & for added interest a postage stamp.

And these are  "postcards" and with a stamp these will actually go through the mail.

Lee Godie

 Yeah, for self taught artists! Lee Godie (1908-1994) came to art in one of the later chapters of her life. Yet she became a fixture of the Chicago art scene for 30+ years. She was a photographer, mostly self portraits. And she painted portraits of people she liked & only sold her art to people she liked.

Extended

 

Two Gals with Cameras

Photographs

by

Lora Reynolds

and 

Alex True

Bartlesville Library

through September 15

My Camera is my Sketchbook

Alex True

                                              Lora Reynolds

Price Tower Show

How do you like your art?

Do you like big images?

Do you like bold colors?

Do you like unusual media?

Then check out Jeremy Arnold's exhibit at the Price Tower. He has filled the space with big canvases of cowboys, buffalo & skulls. And along with plain old acrylic paint he uses spray paint & crude oil. 

This fun exhibit "Roaming Bones" is up through August 22.

Quote of the Week

 "Suppose it is true after all? WHAT THEN?"

                            John Baldesarri

Quote of the Week

 "Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places, where other people see nothing." Camille Pissarro

Two Gals with Cameras

 Photographs

by Lora Reynolds

and Alex True

August 2-30

Bartlesville Public Library

Still Life by Alex True

Faith Ringgold

Artist, Faith Ringgold was featured on CBS Sunday Morning a couple of weeks ago. I first discovered her work in the 1990's, and was immediately jealous. Why? Because she was combining two of my favorite art forms: painting & quilting. She paints the canvas with acrylics and then quilts it, and then adds words. She calls her work Story Quilts. She is still working in her 90's.

Marc Chagall

Happy 136th birthday, Marc Chagall! 

We sill enjoy the work you did in your 92yrs. on the earth.

What I love most about his work is the subject matter. The images of his youth in Russia were always with him, and he painted them like colorful dreams of life at its best, a life we all want to hold in our imaginations.

I was in Rome in 2007. I had just walked through the Forum in the rain, and came to a museum on the hill. There I found a series of collages, that looked like figures in his paintings had leaped off the canvas. I didn't know he had done collages; I was captivated. What a memorable Sunday afternoon.

July 4th

 

Celebrate our country & our great freedoms!

Quote of the Week

 "I am still learning."  Michelangelo

Dear Gwen

 Dear Gwen,

I had been journaling for several years when I discovered your book The Decorated Page at my local library (YEAH for libraries!). The ideas in this book were just what I needed to jump-start my creativity and produce what I call "journaling with embellishment". Just adding a little bit of color via watercolor, colored pencils or markers, can brighten up a page. And a strip of collage paper can add drama. And it makes the process of journaling more fun. Record the facts, record you feelings, and then jazz it up with color, shape, form, line, perspective, and the words seem much more important.

Thank you, Gwen, for showing me how to make my journals truly unique.

Art on a Plate

I've always got my camera handy, so when holiday brunch was ready so was I.

Spinach Quiche

 

Happy Birthday

 Happy Birthday to artist Salvador Dali, 1904-1989

The Persistence of Memory

Here is one of his great images. There is also a Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. I wish I were there right now.

Color of the Week

 Purple

   I love showing off the blooms from the Clematis vine.

Final Jeopardy

 Category: paintings

Answer: The New York Times noted "balls of orange-yellow light" & "the town off in the distance" from the artist's window in this piece.

Question: What is Starry Night?

             I have a "Starry Night" everyday in my sunroom

A Little Bit Crafty

 Part of my creative time has been spent making journals.

Thank you LorriMarie Jenkins for the inspiration for these 2 journals.

The blue one is covered with paper bag pieces that have been painted, embossed & ink stained. It has 3 signatures with a total of 60 pages.

The green journal has signatures sewn in with telephone wire. It has 2 signature with a total of 56 pages.

I left room in each journal for page decoration, an opportunity to have fun with journaling.

Left: 6"x 9 1/2"           Right: 5 1/2"x 8 1/2" 

Color of the Week

 What color is my kitchen?

National Crayon Day

 

Crayons were my very first art material. Probably a box of 24. Later I would graduate to the huge 64 box. You had arrived when you got this size. And of course, the object of crayons was to stay within lines.

In my mixed media pieces these days, I put down lots of color, then maybe add a few lines.

Quote of the Week

 "Everything you can imagine is real."

                             Pablo Picasso

The Art of the Quilt, Plus

As I entered the gallery I was surprised to be greeted by a quilt. I had come to view the Bartlesville Art Assoc. member's show. And yes, the walls were covered with paintings, drawings & photographs, but a lovely, decorative, bold, quilt, had a prominent spot.

       Here are some other pieces that caught my eye.

      The "magic" color combination of blue & orange

             Encaustic= cold wax with oil paint

I love adobe; it reminds me of my trips to Santa Fe & Taos.
 

Happy Birthday

 Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born in 1841. His art career began as an apprentice painter of porcelain, but by the end of the 19th century. he was one of the leading Impressionists.

Here is one of my favorite paintings he did. It is hanging in Washington DC as part of the Phillips Collection. It is also featured in Susan Vreeland's novel where she reveals a cast of characters.

Boating Party Luncheon

The Art of the Quilt

 I've said before that I LOVE QUILTS! They are works of art, and to me they are fabric collages. 

I am not a quilter. To qualify that statement, I have 4 unfinished quilts in various stages of unfinishedness stored in closets (I did have 5, but I recently tore one apart & passed the batting on to someone to put to good use). But I have one neighbor & several friends who regularly turn out works of quilted art.

These are examples of friend Diana's work. Years ago she turned me on to the complementary colors of blue & orange , & I see she is still working in this combination (bottom table runner).

Simple design, dramatic color combo.

Being Creative?

Well, we've spent a lot of time in the house these last months (year), what have you done to keep your sanity? I hope you have created something.

I discovered YouTube months before this COVID thing, and regularly cruise it for journaling ideas.

I stopped at Treasure Books with Natasa recently & found her making pockets/tucks to add to the corners of journal pages. Just as easy as 1, 2, 3: start with a torn book page, add one scrap of paper, one scrap of fabric, one image. But I added 5. It was great fun, & very quickly I had a stack.  

Corner tuck/pockets

Close-up of some of the other images that I used.

In the Studio

Great advice for a cold, overcast, winter day! 

Quote of the Week

 "Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist." 

                                   Pablo Picasso