Tag: art inspiration

What Colors Excite You?

About Michele, Art : Drawing; Painting; Fiber; Etc., Emotional Health, Physical Health

I LOVE COLOR!!!!

Color makes my heart sing and my good feelers bliss out.  Whenever I see some color combination that rocks my world I do my best to get a copy of it on my computer with a screenshot, on my cell phone camera, or in a scrapbook if the photo is in a magazine.  I love that I can take screenshots of images I find when I am working online.  There are so many beautiful pictures that have been shared in one way or another.

All the photos above were screenshots online.  I also have spiral notebooks which I use as scrapbooks for magazine photos I love.  Over the years I have collected several notebooks of magazine cutouts.  One is of home decorations I love, one is of Christmas decorations I love, one is of plants, one is of flowers, one is of clothes, one is of “pretty things”.  These are fun to look at when I am relaxing; or looking for inspiration for art, or sewing, or scarf making, or whatever I might want to create.  I even found looking at my favorite photos of colors or beautiful things, can bring me up out of a less than happy mood.  Occasionally I have taken my scrapbooks, when I am tired and feeling down, and leisurely gone through them.  I found that looking at my favorite pictures again brought joy and love into my heart.

There must be something about the vibrational frequency that makes some colors so healing to a person.  Just like music, colors vibrate.  Colors affect us more than we may realize.  You probably have favorite colors, colors that make you feel good when you look at them.  I obviously do.  That is probably why I love painting and sewing and making things, because I like to chose my own colors and create things with them.

When I was young I thought it was odd that we couldn’t see more colors.  It seemed that if we could see some colors, why would there be a limit to them.  I knew there were more but we just couldn’t see them.  I wondered about all the colors we couldn’t see.  I used to try to put two colors together that, when placed next to each other, almost made me think one of the colors was a new one I hadn’t seen before, because when it was next to that particular color it seemed to look different.  I used to look for colors that were mixed in such a way that I wondered if I was seeing a new color that no one had noticed before.

Lately, when I paint of make something with fiber, making a recognizable image just doesn’t do color justice.  I prefer to let color and texture speak for itself, without any distraction.

Spirit of the Master Painter

Art : Drawing; Painting; Fiber; Etc.
“Out of the storm”, an oil on canvas I painted in Florida.

Last night I dreamed I walked into a silk painting studio and was in awe of all the beautiful paintings fluttering from drying racks.  I spoke to a young woman who was painting and found she had recently just graduated from the school. I followed her around and watched what she was doing. Though I thought her work was beautiful, she considered herself a beginner.

An older woman, who had been in the background, started asking me questions about my impressions. I was so touched by the beauty of the paintings that I was weeping and I expressed as much. I watched her work on a new painting and realized she was a master painter. She mentioned the name of a master painter who did much of the work there, as if the master painter were not she, but I knew she was the master painter.  Sadly, I cannot remember the name. I listened to her every word and did my best to understand everything she said to me.

She suggested I try painting on one of the large, color faded silks that was hanging among others. I painted a tiny little half-moon of dots that encircled a babies head.  Then the baby’s head disappeared, leaving only the dots, which I saw represented the baby.  I was afraid to go any farther on the large silk piece.

She approached and suggested that I paint a portrait of myself.  I felt she meant to paint the essence of who I am. Many possibilities opened up to me and I was thrilled and scared at the same time. I was afraid of making a mistake yet I wanted to try.

She said, “Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. It takes 1000 paintings to become a master.”

I felt as much reverence and love for her as I do my teacher at Tracker school. It felt as though my heart where bare and she was lovingly encouraging me.

As I work on my new art studio, I am more excited than ever.