THE WATCHER

 

THE WATCHER...

what is she watching for...

who is she waiting for?

As the water breaks at the shore...

she stands...waiting...watching...

This theme reminded me of Wuthering Heights. 

Heathcliffe and Catherine.

Of the ghosts of the past that stand on the cliff...wander the shore...young lovers...parted by dire circumstance...longing to hope...wanting to see their beloved walking toward them. Only shadows remain. Watching the horizon...waiting for those who never arrive. And yet...she will stand in all eternity to watch forever.

Your challenge this week is to create your own misty cliff scene in which your "Watcher" is waiting. I have also added a page with free images for you to use for your artwork this week! Enjoy...allow your imagination go across space and time to stand and watch alone.

Here is my "Watcher" Creations!

Digital art created from images from Pixabay and Pinterest

MY HAIR LOOKS LIKE A BIRD'S NEST

 THE NESTING

A tangled wisp here and there where tiny branches are interwoven and secure.

I wear it proud, where comb nor brush can smooth away the knotted frays. 

My feathered friends do not mind the mass of unkempt chaos as they tuck themselves in at night, tired from flight.

For my hair is just a home where the creatures of the air come to stay.

I shall keep it just this way, until my days are short and the nest is nothing but gray.

This is your theme for this week! 

Spring is officially here and the birds have come back to sing their sweet songs of celebration! But beware...they are looking for a place to build their nests. I happened, perchance, to find one in my own hair this morning!

I have posted a page of Free Images for you to use in your artwork this week. I cannot wait to see your Bird Nest creations!!

Digital art created from images from Pinterest and Pixabay, Miriam's Digital Kit Scraps, Gecko Galz Digital Collage Sheets Nature's Sketchbook, Sentimental Celluloids ATC Set, Inspiration Songs ATC Collection, Bird Brained ATC Set, and Signs of Yesterday ATC Set

REVOLTIONARY RENE MAGRITTE

To continue in our Surrealist Masterclass, we will learn about the amazing artist, 

Rene Magritte

 A Belgian surrealist painter, Rene Magritte was renowned for his witty, thought-provoking paintings which took ordinary objects in unexpected contexts which challenged the viewers perception of reality. His work provoked questions about the nature of reality and representation.  He began drawing lesson at age 10 at the royal academy of Fine Art in Brussels. During this time his mother committed suicide by drowning. Her body was not discovered until 16 days later. Magritte was present at the time they retrieved her body from the water. When her body was discovered, her dress was covering her face. This image has been repeated in several of Magritte's paintings where the people he painted have cloth obscuring their faces. Many of Magritte's paintings have an alluring, almost fantastic appeal with a subject matter of images with gruesome detail.

 

The use of objects as other than what they seem typifies his work which shows a pipe that looks as though it is a model for a tobacco store advertisement. Magritte painted below the pipe, Ceci n'est nas une pipe..."this is not a pipe," which seems a contradiction but actually is true: the painting in not a pipe, it is an image of a pipe. When asked about this image Magritte said, "Of course this is not a pipe---just try to fill it with of tobacco."

In 1922-23, Magritte worked as a draughtsman in a wallpaper factory and he was a poster and advertisement designer until 1926, when a contract with Galerie Le Centaure in Brussels made it possible for him to paint full time. In 1927m he held his first solo exhibition in Brussels. it was poorly reviewed.

 Depressed by his failure, he moved to Paris where he became friends with Anton Benton and became involved in a Surrealist group.  An illusionistic, dream-like quality is characteristic of Magritte's version of Surrealism. he became a leading member of the group and remained in Paris for 3 years. In 1929, he was pit under contract at the Goeman's Gallery in Paris.

   

Magritte married Georgette Berger in June 1922. Childhood sweethearts, he first met Georgette when she was 13 and he was 15. They met again in Brussels 7 years later when Georgette, who also studied art, became his model, his muse, and his wife. He was madly in love with her until 1936, when Magritte's marriage became troubled. He met a young performance artist, Sheila Lege, and began a short-lived affair with her. He arranged for his friend, Paul Colinet, to entertain and distract Georgette, but this led to an affair between Georgette and Paul. Sadly, they separated and did not reconcile until 1940 and then lived happily together until the day Magritte died. She lived on after him for 10 more years before she passed away.

In 1945, Magritte joined the Belgium Communist party. his political beliefs distinguished him form many of his surrealists pers. Magritte's support for the communist party tied him neatly to his love for the ubiquitous bowler hat which became s constant fixture of his wardrobe. The hat made him appear just like his fellow comrades, having the opposite effect of say, Salvador Dali's moustache! The hat also became a permanent fixture in his artwork as well.

Unlike many of his surrealist peers, Magritte didn't rely on automatic techniques or dreamlike abstraction. Instead, he applied precision of a realist painter to surreal ideas, creatin poetic puzzles that tease the boundaries between illusion and reality. His work is not simply what is seen, but about how it is seen. Pipes that are not pipes, men with obscured faces, skies inside eyes---his images remain ss enigmatic today as they were when first unveiled. You can see the recurring symbols, sly contradictions and quite provocations that define Magritte's unique legacy.

He once said, "It is irrelevant of the scene behind the easel differed from what was depicted upon it, but the main thing was to eliminate the difference between a view seen from outside and from inside a room."

His use of ordinary objects in unfamiliar spaces in unfamiliar spaces is joined to his desire to create poetic imagery. He called painting as, "the art of putting colors side by side in such a way that their real aspect is effaced, so that familiar objects ----the sky people, trees, mountains, furniture, the stars, solid structures, graffiti----became united in a single poetically disciplined image. The poetry pf this image dispenses with any symbolic significance, old or new.

As Curator Catlin Haskell wrote of Magritte's work: Magritte more than any other artist of the past century, made it his project to subvert our faith in visual similitude. As rapidly improving technology simplifies our ability to realistically distort images, it's more important than ever to consider what  is a pipe and what's not."

Magritte described his paintings as "visible images which conceal nothing, they evoke mystery and indeed, when one sees one of my pictures, one asks oneself this simple question, "What does it mean? It does not mean anything, because mystery means nothing either, it is unknowable."

Magritte died of pancreatic cancer on August 15, 1967, age 68. and was buried in Schaerbeek Cemetery, Evere, Brussels.

Here are my Magritte Creations!

Sorry for the delay in posting the challenge! I had another loss in my family and so the past few weeks I have been traveling back and forth involved in family matters! I am back now and hopefully no more delays! Thank you for patiently waiting for me! 

Can't wait to see your own Magritte creations!

Digital art created from DreamPrintFusion Digital Kits Quirky People and Spring Quirky People and images from Pixabay

PROTAGONIST POLLACK

Study of the Masters continued:

This week we are going to dive into the legacy of 

Jackson Pollack!

Jackson Pollock was an American painter who was a leading exponent of Abstract Expressionism. He is also one of the first American painters to be recognized as a Master of Modern Art. He was widely publicized for and received serious recognition for the radical poured or "dripped" technique he used to create his major works.

Jackson Pollock was not without his various demons which also contributed to his deeply personal and uncompromising commitment to painting.  He was described as gentle and contemplative when sober, violent when drunk. These extremes found a equilibrium in his art.

Pollock was his own worst enemy. He was an alcoholic and suffered from major depression. At his brother's insistence, he saw a psychoanalyst who suggested to him that he would benefit from the concepts of Carl Jung and use that in his artwork as therapy. He was motivated and inspired to use those concepts for the rest of his painting career. He moved to New York City and worked at the WPA Federal Art Project.  He signed a gallery contract with Peggy Gugenheim and was commissioned to paint a 8 x20 foot painting, Mural, for her entryway in her townhouse. This marked an important transitional point in Pollock's artistic career.

He met and married Lee Krasner and with her extensive knowledge and training in modern art, brought Pollock up to date on what contemporary art should be. She was responsible for introducing him to many collectors, critics and artist of his time. It was her judgement of his work that he trusted above all others. it has been said there would never have been Jackson Pollock without Lee Pollock. 

Pollock being the reclusive type, chose to move to the country in Spring City, New York. where he would go on to create his greatest work. This place is where he refined his technique of painting and discovered his famous "drip" method. 

Sadly, to note, he and Lee divorced years later as his infidelities and alcoholism became more than she could bare.

And yet, in this idyllic place, he wrestled with his demons and his critics daily. His work was fresh and provocative but his name was not among the critical work of the artists who had gained a prominent position in the world of art. Fame eluded him. His critics viewed his art as mere unorganized explosions of random energy and therefore meaningless...saying "this is not art---this is a joke in bad taste." And still in spite of what was being said of his work, he continued to fuel his passion to paint.

He discovered his "drip" technique by accident 

as he was painting one day and unintentionally splattered paint on the canvas. He used hardened brushes, sticks, and even basting syringes to create the effect he desired. He used the force of his whole body to paint. Pollock would move energetically around his canvas almost as if he were in a dance and would not stop until he saw what he wanted to see.

He was quoted as saying, " When I am in my painting, I am not aware of what I am doing. I have no fear of making changes, destroying images, because the painting has a life of its own. There is a pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well."

Life Magazine did a four-page spread of his work which finally brought him the acclaimed notoriety he was looking for. In the article they gave him the name "Jack the Dripper". 

In 1950, Hans Namuth, a young photographer filmed Pollack while he was painting to give people a view of how the now famous art was created. 

He said after the experience, "He completely forgot I was there. He did not even hear the click of the camara. He painted for a half an hour. He did not stop. How could one keep up that level of activity? Finally, Pollock looked up and said, this is it." 

In 1956, Pollock was killed in a tragic automobile accident caused by driving under the influence of alcohol. The accident happened less than a mile from his house. 

He became a model of an artist that successfully fused art with life. He believed that art was derived from the subconscious and saw himself the essential subject of his paintings. He judged his work on its inherent authenticity of personal expression.

Here is my Jackson Pollock Creation:

I found as I was creating this art piece there was no particular rules to follow and as I continued adding color and digitally "dripped" the images, a pattern began to form as if on its own. I have never created art like this before and found it very liberating, and as Pollock would have said himself, "the technique was very free and subconsciously flowing"! 

I hope you experience the same feeling as I did when you create your own Pollock Masterpiece. I cannot wait to see what you will come up with!