The Shapes of Spring

I'm inspired today at the feeling of Spring coming and Winter departing, and thought I'd work it into our mini-challenge relating to our weekly theme of shapes in art.

If it is still cold and miserable wherever you may be, perhaps looking at a glimpse of Spring might make you feel better for the time you are making art today. Making art always makes me feel better about EVERYTHING, so it especially works when I'm cold and stuck inside. But today, as I look outside my window at my lemon tree, heavy with fruit, and fuschia colored azaleas covering my bushes, I am really into the idea of Spring- and flowers!

Two well-loved artists used flowers a great deal in their work, and both really exploited the boldness of color -and especially shape- of flowers. Of course, I am talking about Georgia O'Keefe, with her larger-than-life contemporary flower portraits and their wonderful shapes, and Vincent Van Gogh, with his crazy-beautiful views of irises and sunflowers. Who could look at the flowers painted by either of these artists and not feel something wonderful? (Well, I may be a bit biased, as these have been two of my favorite artists since I was a young girl, but just go along with my bias for this little post...)

Here is a simple quote I found by Ms. O'Keefe, that I thought related to the topic today"

I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way--things I had no words for.

See! Georgia (may I call her Georgia?) knew the power of shapes, and you can follow her lead and be inspired to do the same today with your art.

Above and below, you will find two of my photos of flowers that you can work with today in your drawings or paintings. Look for the positive and negative space and how you can make the composition interesting by exploiting it. Look for the repetition of shapes in the petals. If you are reading this post for the first time today, look back to the other posts this week for additional posts relating to this one. We have spent our entire week focusing on shapes in art and how to use them to make our work stronger, with individual lessons and focus on how to do it. (Tomorrow starts a new weekly theme!)

Here are some links to flower paintings done by Van Gogh and O'Keefe (See Bella Donna, 1939) for you to take a look at, and inspire you.

Get drawing or painting, and have fun today working with the shapes of Spring!