Saturday, February 23, 2008

Studio Saturdays - Life Imitates Art

Each Saturday, one of the contributing editors of ABS will share with you some of the things going on in their studio. We encourage you to participate by commenting to the post. And as an incentive, we will offer a small prize each week, given to one random commenter! Sound like fun? We hope you will join in...

Last week's winner was Rosepostcards, we still haven't heard from you! Please use the suggestion box to send your mailing address to us and Elaine will send your bead out right away!

Now on to this week's winner, it's FabFibers! FabFibers has won one of Melanie's new Steampunk inspired gears.

Each bead that has become part of my regular line of beads has started out as an experiment and creative exploration. I'm a production artist, which means I make the same beads over and over again. This week in the studio, I've been filling orders and making beads for my Bead Cruise. So I'm longing for a creative challenge to work on when I return from my travels in March.

Pictured above are my Van Gogh inspired beads. I saw the painting in real life a few weeks ago when I was in NY. What a treat! So on to my question of the week. What is your favorite painting? Please show me and I might just use it as the inspiration for some new beads. Include a link to it in the comments section.

One commenter will be randomly drawn next week and will receive a Van Gogh inspired bead.

15 comments:

melanie brooks said...

That's great that you got to see the painting in real life, I imagine it was very moving, especially since you are already inspired by it.

One of my favorite paintings is The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronomous Bosch. I sit under a giant post of it as I type this. I wonder if I will ever see it in the flesh though, as it is in Madrid

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Garden_of_Earthly_Delights

Steph said...

Starry night is actually one of my favourites among the old masters, but my absolute favourite artist in the entire word is Josephine Wall - and quite alive and painting! I'd find it really difficult to choose a favourite - it changes accodring to my mood but I'm feeling happy and creative and colourful today so I'm going to go with The Three Graces (its in the Godesses section of her gallery, and was also January on my Josephine Wall calendar!)

Her use of colour and detail is amazing. I never ever tire of looking at her work.

Mary Harding said...

One of my favorite paintings is by the Canadian Group of 7 artist Tom Tompson, The Jack Pine. I love all of his work and much of the others in the Group of 7. Here is a link to some of his work and the Jack Pine.
http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/search/artwork_zoom_e.jsp?mkey=11056
I have had the pleasure of seeing most of his work in the original since I live near Canada and have even visited his birth place in Owen Sound where they have a small museum in his honor. The amazing use of color is what I love about his paintings.
I hope you find inspiration from him too. Your beads are so great.It always amazes me that you can get such wonderful color combinations into such a small space.

Carlene said...

Seurat's Sunday Afternoon has always been a favorite of mine. The colors are hard to really appreciate on a monitor, but the contrast between the light and dark and how he used that is what makes this an interesting painting. (That and the way he painted it.) I have a print of this in my office at work. And always enjoy taking a break to looking at it.

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/S/seurat/jatte.jpg.html

Anonymous said...

I am so jealous of you're having gotten to see the painting 'for real'.

The beads however are great - it's like you scraped the paint and swirled it into beads. It's a nice take on the essence of the painting.

beadbabe49 said...

One of my favorite Gustav Klimt's...
http://www.accents-n-art.com/artist_gustav_klimt/images/M00536fp.jpg

I love the combination of green, orange and red in it...

KV said...

These beads so perfectly reflect that wonderful painting! Starry night just happens to be my youngest daughter's favorite painting.


Kathy V in NM

Rosanne said...

I'm a winner? Cool! Thanks Melanie, for donating a Steam Punk bead...I've been watching you go through the process, nice stuff.
My favorite artists are Picasso, Monet and the one I really love is Georgia O'Keefe,
http://www.vialin.com/georgia/georgia_okeeffe.html
especially her paintings of flowers. Her poppy paintings are beautiful.

Lorelei Eurto said...

Oh Heather what a great Studio Saturday post!! As some of you know, I work for an art museum. Although I get to see FABULOUS paintings in our collection every day, (including our O'Keeffe, and Kandinsky) My favorite is the Impressionist period- which we unfortunately have nothing of this style! I got to see a fabulous show at The Sterling and Francine Clark Art institute Called "The Unknown Monet" and the Water Lily moved me like no other painting has before!
http://www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/collection_database/european_paintings/Water_Lilies/viewObject.aspx?&OID=110002464&PgSz=1

Lorelei Eurto said...

shoot, I have a feeling that link won't work. But if you go to www.metmuseum.org and type in water lilies, it will bring it up. :)

Starla said...

you did such a beautiful job capturing the colors in your beads!
i went to the whitney here in nyc and saw an artist who i had never heard of before but i LOVED his paintings and style. his name is oscar bluemner. here's a link to one of his paintings that i really like. but i love all of them! the colors are so vibrant!

http://redescolar.ilce.edu.mx/redescolar/proyectos/acercarte/como_ves/comoves7/rep6.jpg

Bead-Mused said...

My goodness. I have to pick one? It's a toss up between Monet's Waterlilies end Degas' ballerinas, especially The Star. When I was little, my mom did my bedroom in ballerinas, with copies of Degas paintings! But there is something about Monet's work that also speaks to me. It's easy to see how impressionism and pointillism are both so similar to beds.

Glad you're feeeling better and hope to see you in May!
Theresa

Donna said...

I am truly inspired by your interpretation of VanGogh's Starry Knight. But, to tie you down to one painting would be difficult. How about Eugene Garin's sea paintings? http://artwork.barewalls.com/artwork/DaysEnd.html?ArtworkID=75760&thumbs=1&productid=55323

Edie said...

One of my favorite artists is Marc Chagall. One of my favorite paintings of his is Les Maries de la Tour Eiffel ca. 1938
http://www.artknowledgenews.com/files2007a/MarcChagallMuseeNationalMar.jpg It's hard for me to pick just one of his paintings or works.

Tari of ClayButtons.com said...

I wouldn't be able to choose, I love so many artists. I do remember the one piece I nearly cried when I saw it. I didn't know it existed till then. A huge stained glass piece by Chagall. I stood in awe and my eyes started to well up. It was so beautiful. This wonderful piece is at the Art Institute in Chicago. Chagall is one of my many fave artists.
I was crying by the time I left the museum because I could barely walk and I hadn't finished seeing everything in the museum. I was recovering from a broken foot.