I love smearing paint with a palette knife.
The *WordSpark* for my little painting group this month was "Shadows." As is usually the case, I was completely blank as to what I might paint for the topic.
I was walking through the garden center at Walmart, (the part where it's inside, but open to the sky) when I noticed the most lovely perfect shadows this plant was casting on the concrete. The plant was on the floor marked down to $4 because nearly every stem was broken. But... some scotch tape to hold the stems upright-ish... some wire to prop the dead-ish ones up... some artistic license to fix it up was all it took!
- I started with scraps of collage paper in purples.
- Then I fussy-cut (a term I learned from my quilting friends) the flowers off of a paper party napkin.
- Next I created a "found poem" about shadows from a page of Charlotte's Web. (It's the scene where Charlotte was sending the rat, Templeton, to the fairgrounds to get her a word so she could weave it in her web one last time.)
- A found poem is done by taking a sheet of text and marking out everything you don't need until you end up with words that make up a description/feeling/image/poem of what you do need.
 |
The Cool of the Evening In the cool of the
evening, shadows darkened the air. Without
saying anything, he started off. The shadows came as a welcome relief. The sky seemed high, and you could hear music. The man felt refreshed. |
Click Flowers & Shadow if you'd like to purchase this painting.
Inspiration is everywhere, even from a $4 plant at WalMart! Both pieces are so good, but I love your palette work!
ReplyDeleteInspiration is everywhere, but usually where you least expect it and never when you're looking for it!
Deletethat plant is healthy, flower stems die and you cut them off like hair. Glad you brought it home as painting model, and will bring it to life in the energy of your growing world. I like the pic of the obvious collage background. Your poem captures a feeling
ReplyDeleteLeeanna
You and I have talked before about those "found poems." It was fun to put it together, or well, "find it."
DeleteSo pretty! I am always partial to collage, but I love them both. I hope you'll adopt and pamper that plant.
ReplyDeleteI took the plant to my sister's women's crafting retreat center in Weatherford, Texas. I gave it to the lady who keeps everything beautiful on the grounds there. She plants and cares for all kinds of flowers and plants, so I bet she brings it back to it's full flowery glory.
DeleteOH MY! I will never look at marked down plants the same way. Absolutely love today's post. And I learned about found poems - I will definitely use this in some of my future quilt projects. Love your art for "shadows", and especially love where your inspiration came from.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see the found poem that you come up with! I like to put it on my computer screen first so that I can gray out and bring back words and phrases before I get to the marker and paper version.
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