Posts Tagged: inspirational art image
Inspiring Your Art: Wood
Today I’d like you to think about wood as an inspiration for your artwork. There are many facets of “wood” that you can explore: the colors or the textures, how the bark differs from the inner wood. What about wood as a material? It can be cut into pieces and assembled as a mosaic or carved into a sculpture or even used as a substrate, like in wood panel paintings. It can be painted or you can make use of its natural colors and patterns.
I often use natural materials like wood in my abstract, sculptural “paintings.” It can help to provide depth and structure as well as texture or even color. I like to use texture in my artwork, and wood has so many possibilities!
As a fun challenge, I’d like you to choose an aspect of wood and see how you can work that into your art. Will you work with the colors? The textures? Are you going to modify it in some way? Perhaps a series of pieces, each focused on a different aspect of wood? How about contrasting the wood with another material?
What will you choose? I’d love to see what you come up with. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.
Inspiring Your Art: Parties and Celebrations
With the ending of the old year and the start of a new one, this time of year brings to mind both reflections on what I’ve experienced over the last year and anticipation for what is to come. Some years are better than others, but they all have both good and bad times; that’s just life. Though I don’t typically make any New Year’s resolutions, there’s still some appeal in the idea of starting over with a clean slate.
The other thing the New Year brings to mind is celebrations! I’ve lived in Scotland a couple times and if there’s one place to go for New Year’s celebrations, it’s there. The last day of the year is called Hogmanay and its origins reach back to the Viking celebrations of the winter solstice in the 8th and 9th centuries. If anything, it’s a bigger deal than even Christmas. There are a number of older customs related to Hogmanay, including visiting neighbors and relatives and the giving of gifts, but modern celebrations also typically include large parties and fireworks. Another Hogmanay custom is singing “Auld Lang Syne,” which was written by the famous Scottish poet, Robert Burns. This custom has since made its way to many other countries, including America.
So, what are you celebrating with the turn of the year? Your successes of the last year? Surviving the trials you encountered? Or perhaps the opportunity to start again? I wish you all a happy, healthy new year!