shades of joan

Illustration Friday

2007-11-08T09:11:00.000-05:00

In case you are here due to my blogger link you may now find my 'Illo Friday' posts HERE.
Thanks... and keep creating!

I've Moved....

2007-09-06T11:34:00.000-04:00

This is just to let whomever may stop by here know... I have officially moved to a new web site.
Having recently moved from Fl. to Pa., it was time for a change of direction with my blogging also.

If this is your first time here, please scroll down the page and see what it is I do in the wee hours of the morning.

If you see something you'd like as a print, or if you are interested in an original, please email me at my new web site.

Thank you for all your support, and wonderful comments on my art, and you may now visit me at
http://shadesofjoan.typepad.com/

Hope to see you soon...
joan

2007-01-31T00:20:00.000-05:00

Illustration Friday... 'Red'

After far too long of an absence from IF challenges, I finally felt inspired by this week's challenge of 'Red'. The first thing that came to mind for me was Asian culture. The beauty and complexity of their textiles and decor... so much red.

And then I thought about a young asian woman, and wondered how strong her connection could possibly be to just such a color. I envisioned her seeking 'westernization', and that was the inspiration for this piece titled "Red... American Style".

She is so strikingly beautiful, but once you look beyond her incredibly colored hair, one has to wonder if those blue eyes are contact lenses... if her perfect lips are attributed to injections... has she fed into the media image of what a woman must look like... Or is she just naturally this beautiful.

I think that regardless of such speculation, she exudes an air of beauty, and passion, and everything else the color red conjures in our imaginations.

She is 8x10 done completely in watercolors on Fabriano cold pressed archival paper.

Thanks for stopping by, it has been far too long, and I hope she stirs something in you as she has in me.

Until next time...

2006-11-01T01:55:00.000-05:00

Illustration Friday... 'Wind'

This piece is titled "She turned her back on the winds of change"

Hmmm... I'm a firm believer that there are times in our lives when a little denial is a good thing indeed. I will probably edit this post in the next day or so. I will have to gaze upon her unaware for awhile to see what secrets she may be willing to share. Every picture really does tell a story now doesn't it.

Okay, not quite certain of her dimensions... 7x7 would be my guess.

Painted (yes painted, not a digitally altered photo) on 140 lb. Arches watercolor paper done in a combination of Winsor Newton Watercolor Paints and Neocolor II Watersoluble oil pastels.

I will be forever grateful to Teesha Moore for sharing her art journal techniques on her site, she uses Neocolor II pastels. I decided I had to try them and now I'm HOOKED.

Incredible to say the least... you use them like crayons and then go over them with a wet paintbrush... glorious stuff!

Today may we all be brave enough to face our own winds of change.

Until next time...

2006-10-26T19:28:00.000-04:00

Black and Orange Entry

Okay, no time to paint an original for the Black and Orange challenge this month, so I thought maybe I could alter my latest IF entry enough to make it worthy of posting.

So here she is, my "Haunted by Memories" painting that I uploaded into printshop (how archaic) changed her hues and added a black background effect.

Not innovative, but nice just the same!

Until next time...

2006-10-24T02:13:00.000-04:00

Illustration Friday... 'ghost'

So this is my offering for this week's IF challenge. I call this piece "Haunted by Memories".

I was hesitant to post this as I could not for the life of me get the colors right when I scanned the image... It were almost as if the painting would have preferred anonymity.... hmmmm.

I saw a black and white photograph of this girl a couple of months ago and honestly felt as if she were beckoning me somehow. I found myself going back and looking at her often, I was so perplexed by her face. I couldn't gauge her age, or even the era she was in... all I knew was I was transfixed by how hauntingly beautiful she was. Her gaze is so deep and penetrating, and she looks as if she has lived a hundred lifetimes.

I decided to paint her in shades of purple and blue, but it is hard to decipher the colors here... I apologize for that.

She is 8x10 painted in watercolor and Neo colorII watersoluble pastels on 140lb. Arches cold pressed paper. I hope you find her as hauntingly beautiful as I did.

Until next time...

2006-10-19T02:04:00.000-04:00

Illustration Friday... smitten

Okay... this one is a total departure from what I usually paint.

When I saw that this week's theme was 'smitten' I was immediately a tad uncomfortable.

Websters defines smitten as "strongly and suddenly affected". When I read that definition I was instantly hurled back in time to a place of being 'smitten'. And then I began to reflect on what that truly entails. Love struck, infatuated, hormonal, surreal...

It is rose colored glasses and feelings that are magnified about 1000%... the sun shines brighter, the birds sing louder, even the air seems to dance upon your skin in celebration of all the wonderful things you are experiencing due to 'Love'. You want to shout from the rooftops and dance in the streets... and in your heart you pray that it will last forever.

So with respect to all that being 'smitten' induces in us I am offering up "The many colors of a heart gone wild".

Does she look smitten to you? She surely looks smitten to me... and dreamy, and love struck, and swept away to a place where she prays she may never return from.

I wanted to depict all of the roller coaster emotions of love with color.

This piece measures 8x10 and was done in watercolor, pastel, and neocolorII.

And it is my wish that we all forever remain 'smitten'.

Until next time...

2006-10-14T00:59:00.000-04:00

Artwords challenge #23

This painting was done specifically for this weeks 'artwords' challenge.

It is titled "When you look at me..."

When you look at me, do you see what I see?...

Do you look beyond my chestnut skin... go much deeper, look within

To see a woman who's thoughts run deep, and who's heart runs deeper still

A woman of strength and kindness and love...

A woman with an iron will

A woman so proud of who she is and all that she has done

Or do you look at me and see much more, and then feel the need to run...

When you look at me, just look at me

and see all that I am ... woman, sister, a kindred soul

Someone you may call 'friend'.

This piece is 8"x8" on Arches watercolor paper.

It was done in watercolor, pastel and archival ink.

And here's a thumbnail if you'd like a closer look.

Thanks for stopping by to view my art... I hope you enjoy it enough to visit often.

2006-10-10T12:23:00.000-04:00

Illustration Friday... 'Trouble'

My offering this week is entitled "21st Century Vampire"

This challenge was tough for me... I spent 3 days waiting for inspiration... and nothing came. So I started skimming through magazines and fell upon this beautiful image of a young man. He was startlingly handsome, and had an almost angelic quality to him, which to me just screamed 'trouble'. You know the old saying "If it seems too good to be true, it probably is..."

I was certain women would look upon him and 'get it'... could see that longing for anyone this beautiful could definitely spell trouble... but I thought there needed to be just a little more 'something' to convey the theme. So... seeing it IS October, I thought it fitting to add a bit of a creepy element that would not detract from his beauty. Of course, the optimum addition was the slight visibility of a fang protruding from his lip. Sigh, what young woman isn't swept off her feet by the romanticism of a '21st Century Vampire'??

Here's a thumbnail in case you'd like to see a larger image...

Until next time... Joan

2006-10-09T00:24:00.000-04:00

Cotton candy strands of summer...

Seeing I'm 'stuck' on my latest art challenge, I thought I'd stop and share a little something else.

This is the time of year when I miss New England terribly. The season as it changes from summer and prepares for winter is what I miss most every single year.

You see, down here in balmy Florida we have no Autumn, sigh. And it always leaves me just the teensiest bit melancholy. I would give almost anything to just be raking crimson colored piles of leaves in anticipation of swan diving into a glorious mountain of them and then gleefully having to begin all over again... this simplest of pleasures my 3 year old and my 14 year old sons have never experienced, and that saddens me.

I say all this only because this evening is the first 'cool' evening we will be having since maybe March. I just stepped outside to let the dog out for the last time today and was startled, and then filled with anticipation of the coming cold... tonight will be the first one in many months where we can open a window and not have to worry about the central air kicking on as we slumber. This photograph is one I captured recently while floating in the pool at twilight with my littlest one. These cotton candy strands of summer are rare here... and I just couldn't let the moment pass by where it would barely be a memory come morning. All of you who are bundled up in sweaters and winter socks... you are in the midst of a miraculous time of year where Mother Nature is revelling in her flamboyance and you are the lucky few who hold tickets to her sold out show... please write and let me know how incredible her performance is going, I'm certain she deserves every standing ovation.

Longing for a ticket to the show.... Joan

2006-10-03T14:49:00.000-04:00

Illustration Friday... 'Quiet'

Here is my latest offering ... it is for Illustration Friday and

the piece is titled "She dwells in a blanket of quiet".

When I decided to paint this piece my intent was for her eyes to convey

a watery depth that would be interpreted as stillness and quiet.

I love the fact that her age is elusive... is she a young teenaged girl,

or is she a woman who has already endured too much hardship in her life?

And why so quiet? Is she just dwelling in silence as a learned defense mechanism,

or is it possible that she was simply born mute.

Whatever her circumstance... she has chosen to blanket herself in 'quiet'.

She is safe here in this stillness, much like a baby in a womb.

Perhaps one day she will find her voice, or could it be that her silence

resonates more loudly than any words ever could...

This piece is done in watercolor and pastel and measures 8x8

Which seems to be the size I favor at the moment.

It is an original painting on 140 lb. Arches watercolor paper.

After the painting was complete I scanned it into Printshop and added

a 'plastic wrap' filter to give the piece a truer feeling of blanketing.

I hope you like it as much as I do.

Your comments are always welcome, and thank you for visiting.

Until next time... Joan

2006-09-28T21:48:00.000-04:00

Artwords #21 theme: 'Miniature'

This is my 'Ode to Modi'

Title: "She would have given her left arm for one more day with Modi"

After seeing the movie 'Modigliani' about the life of Italian Expressionist painter

Amedeo Modigliani, I was moved to paint this little rendition of one of his most famous paintings.

(Andy Garcia 's portrayal of Modigliani is so beautiful, and so heartbreaking that I highly recommend this film to anyone with the spirit of an artist.)

This piece is painted in acrylics on a 6x6 gallery wrapped canvas. The difference between this miniature rendition and the original is that when he painted it he included her left arm...

I ommited her left arm and replaced it with her broken heart... hence the title "She would have given her left arm for one more day with Modi". What follows is the tragic story the movie was based upon...

Amedeo Modigliani was a Jewish/Italian Expressionist Painter in the early 1900's. He, like most painters back then, was poor, depressed, and on any given day either alcohol or drug abusing. He would sit in Cafe's and argue with Pablo Picasso mercilessly for hours over bottles of Absinthe. He was angry and brooding because he felt the art world didn't understand or accept him or his paintings.
When he was 33 years old he met and fell in love with a young French/Catholic Painter by the name of Jeanne Hebuterne (she was only 19 years old). They fell madly in love, and she became pregnant and bore him a daughter whom they named 'jeanne modigliani'. Her parents disowned her for being with a derelict, drunken, Jewish painter, and tried endlessly to have the child taken away from her.

As time passed Modi painted dozens of pictures of her, and when he found out she was pregnant with their second child, he asked her to marry him. As the story goes he was very sick with not only drug and alcohol related sicknesses but also Tubercular Meningitis. They believe it was the Tuberculosis which he finally succumbed to on Jan 24, 1920, and he died the very week of his largest gallery unveiling...

The most tragic part of the whole thing, is that Jeanne Hebuterne was so overcome with grief after his death, that she was whisked away back to her parents home in France. She felt she could not survive without her beloved Modigliani, and two days after Modi's death, she purposely walked backwards out of a balcony 5th floor window of her parents home, where she fell to her death taking her unborn child's life with her.

Here is a picture of the original painting if you would like to compare it with my rendition.

I hope you liked this offering... it is one of my favorites.

Until next time... Joan

2006-09-28T09:31:00.000-04:00

Time moves forward through our artistic endeavors

Well, it is family weekend at University of Tampa ...

Can it be more than a month that she has been gone already?

This page is from my art journal... created recently when I was going through the anxiety of my daughter 'leaving home' for college.

It amazed me how channeling all of that energy into an art page did put things in perspective for me. It tells a story that upon reflection made me realize that this is just the progression of things... life moves on. I think the piece is self explanatory, but bears a bit of sharing anyway :)

That is her safely nestled in her 'home' where all of her roots are. As you follow her roots you return to her early years in the nest. I love the little heart tendrils sprouting so helter skelter from where she sits... She was two when this picture was taken. It is so hard to believe it has been almost 16 years since then... And of course as with life, you come full circle to where she is now. I decided to use an image of her hand as she balances her workload, never losing sight of her end goal, which is to be a US Senator one day... (you go Jess!!)

She is so smart, and beautiful, and so very young. And even though I will never totally let her go... processing all of the mixed emotions I was experiencing through an act of creativity, truly did help me to visualize her taking flight... and then, with the heart of a mother, to gently release her... and just watch her soar.

Just think... only 4 years until my son takes the leap from his nest...

Onwards and upwards...

2006-09-27T00:43:00.000-04:00

Illustration Friday... Phobia

This is my offering for this week's Illustration Friday challenge.The piece is titled PhilophobiaPhilophobia is the fear of falling in love, or being in love.I chose to portray a woman who is beautiful, and giving, and has relinquished all for the love of a man. She cannot understand why her love was not returned in full, nor can she imagine what she might have done differently.Of course she is unaware of the truth, which is that this man is incapable of loving deeply and fully because he is bound by his own inner demons which alas, have absolutely nothing to do with her.The price she has paid for this illfated love? To forever suffer mercilessly with fear and doubt.Fear of her own worthiness, and doubt of her ability to ever find 'true love'. Okay, so now the technical part :)She is 8x8 and was created on 140 lb. Arches coldpressed watercolor paper.She is a hand drawn and painted original using Windsor Newton Watercolors, and water soluble oil pastels.She was then scanned into Printshop where the edges were distressed and the text was added. The difference between someone afflicted with philophobia,and you and I, is that we have eternal hope in the power of love.We believe that it is our destiny to love again,and to have that love returned completely.After all... "All you need is Love" Thanks for stopping by, and feel free to share your thoughts too.til then... Joan

Art Squared Challenge... China Girl

2006-09-20T15:30:00.000-04:00

This month's art challenge for Art Squared was 'Song Title'. After giving the whole thing much thought, I decided on David Bowie's 'China Girl'. (She is 8x8 on 140lb. Arches coldpressed paper, and is done in Watercolor and Archival Ink.)I wanted her to resemble an old world Geisha... but to have a contemporary feel as well, rendering her a bit 'anime'... her eyes having a dreamy ethereal look, a look of longing. Maybe she is longing for a different life, or perhaps she is longing for the return of her Master. Either way, I really love the look on her face...And if one is to look closely enough, you will see that one eye is blue, and the other brown...just like Bowie's

Never put off until tomorrow... for what if tomorrow never comes?

2006-09-20T12:53:00.000-04:00

Well, I have decided that if I wait until I learn html's to start posting, that blogs could be obsolete by then! ... so putting the technical stuff aside, I am officially just jumping in head first!

If you happened to stumble upon me by accident (happy accidents!) or if you found me through someone else... Welcome!! My hearts desire, is that we journey through the world of 'artistic exploration' together, and that every 'artist' and 'creative' will find a home and a voice through the miracle of cyberspace.

For me personally, this is a place where I will be sharing my art (even though I am a perfectionist, a blocked creative, and an artist seeking direction..) and also on occasion, my digital wanderings and literary ponderings.

So, get comfy, feel free to call me 'friend', and please leave comments, thoughts, or your own story... it is so important that in this busy world, we take the time, and explore new ways of becoming connected.. one with another.

I hope that you will visit often, and that together, we may find within these blogs a common thread down the Yellow Brick Road and through Strawberry Fields.

Until then...

Joan

2006-09-15T23:32:00.000-04:00

This site is currently under construction while I attempt an original template!! Wish me luck!