One Room Challenge - Week Seven
Time to add pops of color with art!
In this post, I mentioned this beauty I purchased from this Etsy shop (the painting, not the girl!) - so happy with it! To clarify, I'm also happy with the girl, my daughter, who is no longer really a girl, but a soon-to-be mother of three.
It was just the bold, contemporary statement I wanted to provide the counterpoint in an otherwise traditional space. I'm always about the mix!
I knew when I purchased it I would need other art in the space, but figuring that out wasn't a high priority at the time. Now that the big changes are finished, it's time to start adding in these fun elements. You'll see more over the next couple of weeks, but this post is about the art that has been recently added and how it came about..
With a void along the left side of the window, I knew I'd be adding wall art there, and figured it would be a stacked arrangement of either two or three. It took several weeks of pondering before I realized that Cathy Lancaster offered just the style I wanted. I reached out to Cathy but ultimately decided the budget for this space didn't allow for talent of her caliber. If you're a collector of fine art, I highly recommend adding one of her pieces.
Cathy's work is shown below.
Since I have a passion for art (my degree is in graphic design), I follow several artists on Instagram and have commissioned works from Susannah Bee, Janet Skates, and Betty Kraus, and own originals from a few others. Collecting original art brings me great joy. The artists I've listed here all create works that explore color - that's exactly what I wanted for the guest room. So, I pondered, could I possibly try to create my own art using a combination of their techniques?
Examples of Susannah Bee, Janet Skates, and Betty Krause below, respectively.
I had my doubts, but tried it anyway. Mid-stream I had more doubts but decided to continue to see where I ended up. I have to say, although there were moments where it looked pretty hideous, I am really, really pleased with how they turned out and how they look in the room. And, bonus, I had so much fun making them!
The images above show the process from doodling, to composition, and final layout of the smaller piece of art. I was surprised that my brain could not think of fresh doodles! I'm sure if I were to create this type of art on a regular basis more options would come to me.
All of the doodles and color lays were done on one sheet of paper for this particular piece, but you could create as many as you like, even saving them over time and coming back to create your collage. I then tore out the areas that offered the most pleasing colors and patterns. Several options were torn, but as I played with the composition I limited it to just a few of them. For this room, I really wanted to see the torn white edge along each piece so I was careful to tear by pulling up the piece next to the piece I intended for my collage, rather than pulling up the desired piece. This gave me the white edge I desired.
The larger piece of art was the first I created, using only paint and collage techniques. The image above is an early version and not the final art. Why didn't I doodle? I wasn't brave enough to try it on this piece. After doing the second, smaller art, I considered coming back to this one or creating a new piece with doodles, but I liked the idea of a less busy piece of art as the larger piece. The two still work as a pair because they are both collages with similar colors.
What do you think? I love walking into the room and seeing my creative work and I'm excited to show you how the pieces work together in the space as a whole. So keep following along!
Jami
Check out previous One Room Challenge posts:
Others to Follow:
Event Sponsor:
