blogging a little of a lot
Perhaps, with a droll sense of humor, you will chuckle to learn what French artist Martin Drolling used to make Mummy Brown.
“Art historians believe he used the remains of French kings disinterred from the royal abbey of St. Denis in Paris” to create the burnt/raw umber hue in the below painting.
Kinda makes you think twice about what the women on the canvas are actually thinking.
daily word prompt: via Droll
A reminder about the challenges of growing into ourselves.
Once you get rid of the riffraff, the world is calm and beautiful.
I created this image by merging two of my paintings via photoshop.
daily word press prompt: via Riff
Ah! What a delight
to open one’s eyes and discover
the world is more
than black and white.
painting by CD-W after Jean Siméon Chardin’s self portrait
daily photo prompt: Black
We all know that our eyes can be deceptive. Most of the time, we see what we want to see … until someone points us toward the truth.
“No, that’s not possible,” I told my friend on our visit to Florence, Italy.
“Oh, my dear, but it is. They mastered it well during the Renaissance.”
“But it’s a sculpture.”
“Nope. It’s flush with the wall. It’s all paint.”
That’s when I realized I was a neophyte to the art of Trompe l’oeil.
Wikipedia: Trompe-l’œil (French for “deceive the eye”, pronounced [tʁɔ̃p lœj]) is an art technique that uses realistic imagery to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects exist in three dimensions. Forced perspective is a comparable illusion in architecture.
I decided to give it a go, at least in small measures.
Thinking of Leonardo Da Vinci, I painted the image below (not the center man- he was truly glued on). The image is flat but I wanted to make the papers appear taped to a brick wall. The shadows around the papers add to the 3-D appearance.
Note: the words are written in Italian, backwards, like Da Vinci wrote. The envelope (from the man himself) says, “Dear Carolina, Maybe this helps!”
This one, The Helper, is one dimensional and has no real frame.
While I continue to be a neophyte in this department, today there are many great artists who can master this technique.
And, I still can’t decide which is better — a deceptive eye or the truth behind it. What I do know is this —
photo credit one
photo credit two
photo credit three
daily word prompt: Neophyte
“After this, she’ll have to find another proxy. The job gives me a headache.”
Painting by CD-W
Daily word prompt: Proxy
When the party’s over
where to go from here?
curl into a den of woe
and wait to disappear?
Breaths of life sustains me
when others fill my room
without their presence, the lonely heart
retreats within the womb
Why must I be so absent
in the carriage of myself
that I sit so idly dormant
on a dusty solo shelf
Do only I allow to see
myself through other’s eyes?
Surely there’s another way
than gowns that glamorize.
It’s risky business, first learning to paint
being creative, letting go of restraint
who wouldn’t want to see two women chattin’
But maybe not Churchill
compressed in a wagon.
(a couple of my numerous early paintings)
daily word prompt: Risky
First Movement : I started taking piano lessons when my kids were young. It was, you know, one of those things you want to try. As it turned out, although I truly enjoyed making sounds on the piano, I never could manage to really play.
Second Movement: Before Ludwig Von Beethoven was completely deaf, he composed “Quasi una fantasia,” roughly translated as “almost a fantasy” but better known as Moonlight Sonata.
Third Movement: Around this time, I was also taking art lessons. I wanted to draw something other than stick figures. So, I tucked a bunch of art classes under my belt.
Fourth Movement: I watched a a movie about the great composer who left his estate to his “Immortal Beloved” – also the name of the film. I love this movie! Especially 2 particular scenes – the one at the end (you’ll have to watch), and the one where Beethoven, in his later years, plays Moonlight Sonata with his head rested on the piano so he can “feel” the notes.
Wrapping up this Composition:
So, I took a screen shot of that particular scene. (A great idea for practicing artists)
And made my own interpretation.
As I assumed all along, we can’t all be Beethoven’s.
But in our own ways, we can play along.
(Even if it’s a play on words)
On a scale from from one to ten
where do you fit in?
On a scale from high to low
which direction do you go?
On a scale from left to right
undisturbed or too uptight?
On a scale from A to G
what matters is the harmony
Whatever range in which we fall
Quite the keyboard are we all!
Weekly photo challenge: SCALE
