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Van Gogh Journal – Pages 49 & 50!
Hello Friends!
It has been quite a while since I worked on my Van Gogh journal! Our oldest child is visiting for a few weeks before going back to work another trails season for the summer. So we have been visiting, and I wasn’t feeling real artsy until yesterday! Then once I got going, I ended up creating FOUR more spreads! (I was on a roll!) So I will be posting the other three page spreads over the next few days. I only have three more spreads to create now, and this journal will be done! I will have mixed feelings about finishing it, though. But the next journal I plan to do will be about Degas. I will be creating all of it on my own, though, since I don’t have a book about him like this one that I am willing to rip pages from to make a journal.
For this spread in this journal I was feeling happy! I used some washi tape of flowers and birds, stamped a few turtles and blue circles with a sponge, embellished the painting of van Gogh with a bird’s wing and painted over it a little. Then I added some flowers I cut out and painted. And I glued down cut out copies of grasses I had drawn years ago on my badger pencil drawing. I used acrylic inks for everything except some fluid acrylic paints for the blue circles. I also added a thick blue ribbon in the binding for a bookmark. There will be a picture showing more of the bookmark tomorrow; it shows up better on the next pages.
The painting of Van Gogh here was not done by Vincent. It was painted by Francis Bacon in 1957. It was part of a series of six paintings he dedicated to the subject of Van Gogh. This particular painting was inspired by Vincent’s painting The Painter on the Road to Tarascon which he did in 1888. However, it was destroyed in World War II, so Bacon never saw the original and worked from a reproduction. This painting is called Study for a Portrait of Van Gogh IV. Also, I think he did other paintings in Vincent’s style.
I have never read about or studied any of Francis Bacon’s paintings, so that’s going to be my next art research project! I won’t be dedicating a journal to his work, but now my curiosity is peaked, so I am interested in finding out more about him.
I hope you are all doing well! We have had both of our vaccinations now, but are still practicing social distancing and wearing our masks. Stay well my friends!
Have a wonderful day! 🙂
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Van Gogh Has Gone to the Birds!
Hello Friends!
Yesterday I guess I was feeling a little cuckoo! There aren’t any cuckoo birds on these pages, but the quail has the feet of the Blue-Footed Booby whose head is in the righ top corner of the right hand page. And it has had its feathers dyed orange!
Vincent has the left eye and beak of a bird and has apparently started growing some feathers on his back. And it seems that his letters must be coming from Theo by air mail!
All these birds should be watching out for the fox that’s sneaking into the book at the bottom right hand corner, though. She looks hungry!
Lastly, I made a book mark for the second pocket in the book which is on the left-hand page.Â
Have a wonderful day! 🙂
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Van Gogh Journal Pages 45 & 46
Hello Friends!
Yesterday, I began painting these pages with a mixture of red and blue acrylic inks to get this shade of purple. Then I painted the vague shape of an ear on the left page with Burnt Sienna acrylic ink. Next I used black, white and green acrylic inks to paint the eye with tears. On the right page is an abstract profile of a discouraged Vincent with a green eye and bloody ear. I mixed some Burnt Sienna with some white and painted the face and body. And again I painted his bloody ear.
The last thing I did on these pages was come up with as many words as I could to describe the myriad feelings that Vincent expressed during his life of trying to make it as an artist and the hospitalizations he experienced for manic and depressive behaviors. Here are all of the words I wrote: sadness, vagabond, frustration, disfigured, madness, unsatisfaction, stain, defeated, hopeless, desperate, flawed, insane, weakness, lunatic, mistake, lethargic, overwhelmed, failure, labeled, black sheep, trashy and lost.
But on a more positive note, I chose the word GENIUS. That is what I feel Vincent van Gogh was the most.
Have a wonderful day! 😀
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Van Gogh Journal Pages 43 & 44
Hello Friends!
I have been working on these pages for the last couple of days. I love the drawing called “Sorrow” which he drew during “The Hague Period”. He drew this woman in black pencil. The others on the right page are two of his drawings of very sad looking women also.
I copied these drawings a few times and wanted to put layer the woman, Sorrow, into a circle like she is hiding within herself. That was fun to do. Then I did the same layering effect with his other two drawings on the right-hand page.
I also wanted these pages to be in monochrome colors because of the subject matter. I used black and white acrylic inks and combined them to make the gray shades. But what I really loved doing was writing the poem.
Words and phrases were coming to me over the last couple of days until I sat down and wrote this yesterday morning while sitting outside in the beautiful sunshine.
I wrote this from the perspective of how Vincent probably felt during his years of struggling with depression but also from the perspective of how the woman he drew was depicted. I really enjoyed this challenge. It has been awhile since I’ve written anything, so it was fun.
Have a wonderful day! 🙂
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Degas in Acrylics and Acrylic Inks
Hello Friends!
This is another project I began last week. First I drew it lightly onto the canvas by eyeballing a picture of this painting from a book I have. I used a water soluble pencil for that. Then I painted it in acrylics and acrylic inks on a 12″x16″ canvas.
This project was done as an art challenge by my friend Debra who is also an artist. She asked if our other friend, Emma, and I would like to paint something from one of our favorite artists. She said I couldn’t pick Van Gogh, though, ha ha! (I have a sneaking suspicion that she is doing a Van Gogh!) But my absolute two favorites are Edgar Degas and Vincent van Gogh, so that was fine with me!
I have done this painting in watercolor before, but not as detailed. But I have never tried to do one of his in acrylics, so it was a lot of fun! I didn’t try to match the colors exactly. Besides, all the colors look different depending on which book I look in or looking at a picture on the internet, so that was no big deal.
This is my version from his painting called “Blue Dancers” which he painted in oils in Paris, c.1895. I think it has always been my favorite of all his ballerina paintings.
Have a wonderful day! 🙂
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Van Gogh Journal Pages 41 & 42
Hello Friends!
I was finally able to get back to working in my Van Gogh Journal yesterday. We were able to get our first Covid vaccinations on Friday, but my arm was sore for a couple of days! We will be getting our second one on the 30th of this month. I hope you are all doing well! We are staying healthy here!
I didn’t have any plans for these pages. I just worked intuitively as I listened to a book on Audible! I am enjoying listening to books now! I get a lot more reading in while I am painting or doing dishes, ha ha!
Have a wonderful day! 🙂
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Van Gogh Journal Pages 39 & 40
Hello Friends!
Yesterday I decided to put two of Vincent’s self-portraits together which he painted after he cut off the tip of his right ear. I also added some animal friends. The rabbit is a copy of the one I drew several years ago. And since it was done in pencil, I decided to add some Liquitex Burnt Umber acrylic ink to color it and black ink for the fur. Then I had a random piece of blue paper, so I made it have a blue eye.
I bought some little animal rubber stamps on Etsy, so I used the parrot and the turtle. I stamped them in black and colored them with acrylic inks. I added a little flower to his lapel on the left. Then I looked up quotes Vincent was known for and wrote them out to fill three big spaces. ( You may have to enlarge the picture to read them.) Vincent knew he was mentally ill, but I am so glad it fueled his art instead of squashing it! I like to think he was a genius at expressing himself. He saw things so vividly with his heart, you know?
I copied the swirly markings from the background of a portrait he painted of a boy he knew and used it to make the smoke from his pipe more elaborate. That was fun.
I hope everyone has had a great week, and for those who celebrate Easter, have a beautiful one!
Have a wonderful day! 🙂
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Van Gogh Journal-Pages 37 & 38
Hello Friends!
Yesterday, I collaged the next two pages of my Van Gogh journal. I was excited to use a new color of Liquitex Acrylic Ink called Vivid Red Orange. I used it in the background on the first page, and then mixed it with some Cadmium Yellow Light to lighten the color for some of the right page. Then I mixed the yellow with some blue and made the green. I also used the acrylic inks to enhance the copies of Vincent’s art and his self-portrait on the second page. I really enjoyed making the same strokes he did even if mine were much smaller.
And somehow, Vincent picked up a few balloons on the way to the cafe after spending a nice spring day out in the field painting. I think he is looking forward to a good dinner!
Lastly, I included some words: Vision, love, connection, goodness, kindness, acceptance, beauty, and gratitude. These are all things I try to cultivate in life these days since life is short. Other phrases I included are Risk rejection by following your heart, learning about doing your work and explore new worlds.
This was a fun page spread to do yesterday since I haven’t been feeling up to doing any art over the last week or so. My left shoulder has been bothering me, so I haven’t wanted to strain it too much. And it is NOT the one I had fixed in 2019! I just hope I am not going to have to have another shoulder surgery this year, but if I do, it will just have to be done. I have several types of appointments this month, so I will be going to town at least once a week or more. And I have been reading A LOT of books! I have been enjoying finding books from the children’s section of the library lately. I never realized how many great novels have been written for kids since my kids have grown up! So that has been pretty fun!
Have a wonderful day! 🙂
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Vincent van Gogh Journal Pages 35 & 36
Hello Friends!
Yesterday I was excited to do these pages, because I just bought a few new colors of Liquitex Acrylic Inks. So in the background I used a very bright Yellow Orange Azo. I also used some on his hat along with some Raw Sienna.
On his face I also used some Raw Sienna and added some Burnt Umber in his beard. For the blues I used Phthalocyanine Blue (Green Shade).
Then I painted my flowers with Quinacridone Magenta and white.
I am looking forward to using these colors even more! And I am really loving acrylic inks!
Have a wonderful day! 😀
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Van Gogh Journal Pages 33 & 34
Hello Friends!
I can honestly say I had no plans for these pages, ha ha! So somehow three of Vincent’s self-portraits ended up with peacock feather eye patches! And of course the peacock, parts of her anyway, had to be included.
Then a copy of a badger drawing I did in pencil peeked in to see what kind of craziness was going on! Badgers and peacocks sure are curious!
I loved playing with blues, and greens on the background that I painted with a mixture of red and yellow acrylic inks. I included copies of some of his writing and parts of his paintings. Then I painted on some Phthalocyanine Green (yellow shade) acrylic ink in various places.
These pages were fun. I hope you all are well. I have been feeling a little under the weather, but getting lots of sleep to fight off a slight cold.
Have a wonderful day! 😀
Patsy's Creative Corner 