Challenge for September, Patterns in Nature

Kathy always gets the closest of closeups in nature and makes wonderful art from them. She suggested we all make art from patterns in nature for our challenge this month.

 The Yellow Basket 

by Denette Schweikert 

11" X 14"

Kathy told me that this painting qualifies as patterns in nature but I don't know. I started this picture a long time ago and put it aside. I then found it, really changed it, and finished it. Now I'm happy about it. I shot the photo at a "pond tour" in Merritt Island.

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Dragonfly Wings

Watercolor, 11x14

I do my best thinking in the pool, so while I was trying to think of a pattern in nature for this challenge, a couple of dragonflies were flying around. I decided to do some layered dragonflies in fanciful colors. The blue one is an actual copy of a certain dragonfly's colors, believe it or not.

Carmen Beecher

https://www.etsy.com/shop/carmensart

https://www.carmenbeecher.com

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I was happily overwhelmed by the challenge this month. You can get so lost in really looking at nature and how beautiful even a bug can be. I went off in several directions until I came across some photos of viruses, yes viruses. I could not get over how beautiful these deadly things could be.

They also reminded me of patterns that I see on native dress in Africa, which incorporate so much of nature in their design. I will not tell you what these viruses are but just know as Billy Crystal would say, "It is better to look good than to feel good."

 

Several viruses collaged together

 

Donna Vines

Donnavinesart.blogspot.com

Donnavinesart.Etsy.com

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I took this photo at the New York Botanical Gardens as it seemed Mother Nature had outdone herself in the design.  The leaves were so interesting they almost appeared to be a product in plastic made by a whimsical artist.  Little did I know this would be the perfect prompt for the challenge.

Costus Stenopuynas costacea

southwestern Costa Rica

And my doodled design...if I had had colored pencils with me I would have enjoyed playing with the greens but rendering it only in black and white was fun.

 

Cindy Michaud

art@cindymichaud.com

www.cindymichaud.com

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Patterns in nature are probably my favorite inspiration. I'm so happy my fellow pieces were willing to play along. For this challenge I was thinking snails! (Okay, I think about snails a lot...patterns, spirals, beautiful colors...what's not to love. ) It was, however, a rough month with very little time for art and so I just did some doodling. Here are two snail inspired watercolor and inks.

Home and Garden

Spirals

Kathy Garvey

Art by Kathy at www.etsy.com/shop/snailflower

Fabrics by Kathy at www.spoonflower.com/profiles/kgarvey

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One of the most intense times I have spent sketching nature was spent at Silver Springs on a Piece's retreat about four years ago. I was fascinated by the profusion of Angel Trumpets.

Interior View  2014

Tons of Trumpets  2014

A recent sketch


I change the challenge a bit from making a close-up pattern, to just making a pattern. The sketch with tons of Angel Trumpets made me think of the pattern of a cotton pinafore that was one of my favorites as a child. I took the form of the stem and added one blossom to each right sided angle (or is that angel)?. Now the pattern resembles the fabric these blossoms brought to mind. Not exactly what intended when I started this challenge, but it makes me happy.

Fay Picardi

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Insects are really beautiful 

Patterns in nature are a great inspiration for many artists. Dragonflies are especially interesting. I have painted dragonflies and had a couple in the file, but wanted to do something new and out of my imagination. I imagined a bee flying over a field and water. (Is there such a thing as a "bee's eye view?") It started as a watercolor (smaller print) and ended up as a mixed media. I just had fun with the patterns and a limited palette.

--Jean Thomas

ozworks22@cfl.rr.com  

Wallace Nutting

Most people don't know who Wallace Nutting is.  Unless you are exposed to his photographs or love historical furniture his name is not well known.  I came across his unique art form when I was thumbing through a box of old photographs and postcards. They were quite old, before the era of color photography yet they were so colorful, they almost looked otherworldly.  Most were just blank but a few had the signature Wallace Nutting on them. After doing a little research I discovered that he was a pioneer of hand colored photography.
He was a minister who retired in his early 40's because of ill health.  He had two hobbies, photography and bicycling.  He combined the two, taking many photographs of the New England countryside.  He hand colored them to make them more interesting using oil paints, solvents, small brushes and solvents.  They became so popular at his peak he had 200 "colorists" working for him.
I used his method to do some hand colored photos on my own.  It is a long time consuming process but the end result can be really special.
This is one of my favorites.  If you zoom in you can see where the color is applied.
Below is Sunset in Rockport NFS and Pretty Things, which is a necklace and shells.

Pretty Things


donnavinesart@Etsy.com
donnavinesart.blogspot.com

Hand colored photos

Several years ago I did some hand colored black and white photos.  I had long been intrigued by the process, ever since I had seen some postcards and landscapes in an antique shop many years ago.  I read about the process and decided to try it. 
It is very time consuming and can be tedious but I loved the results.  These are photos of two subjects I did that were not landscapes or outdoor scenes.
Donna Vines

 
 

Shells and Bling

Another favorite subject of mine to hand paint were everyday indoor scenes.  Everyday objects next to each other or that seemed very different but belonged together.  I like this one because it has the soft shells in it and some razzle dazzle.  Both are beautiful in their own way.
Donna Vines

Shells and Bling
 

She Sells Sea Shells

Sometimes a piece is just plain fun to execute....and "She Sells Sea Shells" was like eating peanuts: I had a hard time stopping!  This is actually two pieces on seperate cradled wood panels...they are now attached with leather ties and hang nicely as one piece.  The two could hang individually but again, making them work together was part of the fun.  A lot of time went into surface prep and after several coats of gesso this mixed media piece received water color, acrylic and graphite.  While I had a vague idea for the overall look when I started it, working on it was like doing a crossword puzzle...one completed shell would impact the layout of the next one and suddenly a splash of color seemed better suited for something else than what I had originally planned.  So it evolved and unfolded and changed and morphed which made it anything but boring to work on.

This is the top panel immediately below.  Once I decided it was finished I had to seal the graphite with fixative and then begin the process of varnishing the entire piece to protect it.  I chose a satin finish as sometimes the shine on a piece makes it look a little unreal to me.

Below it is the second panel, a close up, altho in reality the two panels are not the same size.  Once again I am thrilled to give the credit for teaching me this technique to Fran Hardy....only my work does not do hers justice! 

I'm already preparing some panels for another collection....I have a great assortment of mushroom photos I took while hiking this month.  So I suppose that with apologies to Fran I will find a way to continue to "tweak" this process and make it a bit more "Michaud" than "Hardy."

Cindy Michaud

http://www.cindymichaud.com/