Art Escape

I love all forms of art. It's beautiful. It's fun. "It is what it is."

Sometimes I don't understand a piece, but maybe I'm just trying too hard to put meaning to something abstract. After all, "l'art pour l'art" or "art for art's sake." I'm not sure who said it, but I definitely agree. Art is what it is for itself, not the opinions or judgments of others.

I'm mainly a writer. I've chosen the written word as my medium and the forging of sentences as my masterpiece. It's something I enjoy and work to perfect. It's something that I want to learn more about and that I admire. However, there are times when I want to use my creative juices in some other form of art.

I've got an amateur hand when it comes to drawing. I am fairly competent at playing the flute. But, when it comes to other art forms, painting is relaxing for me. It has probably been months, maybe a year, since I shared painting on this blog but I know I've done it in the past.

Relatively recently, I moved to a new place. The thing about moving is that you have to get settled again. Every time you move, you have to find your niche and make a home for yourself. Part of this is done by setting up your room.

For the most part, I set up the essence of my room immediately. I had the basic functioning items. A bed and desk, I use my stepladder as a bookcase and I have a dresser in my closet. But, the soul of the room was missing.

All of my walls were bare in the beginning and I didn't have anything to hang. I didn't even have paper or art materials to make something. So, I've spent a number of weeks surrounded by blankness and while it's not urgent, I knew that I needed some more color.

So, I decided to create my own artwork for my walls. Creating a painting seemed like a good idea. I've done miniature ones before. I've painted a bike and avocados for my sister (on separate canvases) and I've done some flowers, landscapes and abstract pieces for myself.

However, when you're putting art in a room, it needs to coordinate with the other stuff. My issue is that I'm not style savvy. Still, the centerpiece of my room is my bed and the one thing that isn't going to change is my quilt. The quilt is a patchwork piece that my Nana sewed for me years ago. I've kept it and brought it everywhere since I left home. It's a bright spot and beautiful reminder. There are so many different colors on the quilt so I knew that my painting could be fairly colorful, but it also needed simplicity.

My best art usually has nature in it. It's easier for me to draw flowers or paint trees than work on animals or humans. Therefore, I decided that I wanted flowers to decorate my walls.

It turns out that I'm a very lucky person because a neighbor down the street is an artist. She willingly allowed me to use her studio, paints and brushes while I created my art. I felt a little funny walking down the street with two canvases half my height, but I'm super grateful that she gave me space to work. She also gave me suggestions and tips for painting.

As I mentioned, I'm amateurish when it comes to all other art forms. So, I learned a way to paint that didn't leave streaks across the canvas. I learned about mixing paint and different things that made it runny. I learned the proper method of washing brushes and the rule of never letting paint dry on your brush. It took almost two weeks, but I finally finished. You can see the finished product below.

I wanted something simple but also connected. The green vine and leaves connected the paintings together and the flowers separated them while showing off different colors of the quilt. Also, I kept with the rule of three for balance in the purple flowers. From my own experience with drawing, outlining in a darker shade brings out the lines and creates a contrast, so I outlined the pink petals to make it stand out and not so much of a blob. The white behind the yellow stamen in the center was under the advisement of my artist-neighbor and I did the same with the purple flowers to keep things balanced.

What do you think and what would you want to paint?

Flower painting for my walls. Original artwork!