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We have had two Creative Mindfulness Mather classes this month with Casey with prompts from Peruvian Art.
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Mather classes |
Casey took a trip to Peru in May...and came back so excited about all the arts, fabrics, scenery of the country which she will be sharing for the month of June.
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Mather classes |
Our first class on Peru was Rainbow Mountain or Mt. Cuzco, Peru. Yes, this is a real place. There are a ton of photos on this location, and it seems the colors are different certain times of the year. The shot on the right is an actual photo...and you can see the tiny people at the base of the red part, walking. Left is Casey's take on the scene.
Yes, the hues can be very bright, depending on the angle of the sun and time of year.
Here is a clip of a Pinterest photo...
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I love the jacket that has all the colors and variations in it similar to the hills. The colors occur because of all the minerals in the different layers that were upheaveled when Teutonic plates converged and created the Andes mountains.
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Anyway, our prompt was to draw our own mountain, and hills, background and sky and fill in each layer with whatever color we wanted.
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Creative Mindfulness is all about getting lost in your work, and filling in all the stripes of my mountain with pencils was very soothing. I might try a water color in the future, I increased the width of the lines in the foreground, to give an idea of detail and closer proximity, and used more faded colors in the background hills. I scribbled the sky and clouds without any details.
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I used black Sharpies, pencil, eraser, and colored pencils, and later watercolor washes.
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I do love becoming lost in a project...it's the journey not the destination.
The next week, we had something entirely different.
HANDWOVEN FABRICS.
Here I used a few pencils, markers, and some water color washes, and I chose to tape off some straight lines...because I simply can't make a long straight line....LOL.
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The patterns are from weavings in clothing and rugs. Peru is known for it's Alpacas and Lamas and some sheep, and the gorgeous uses of natural dyes and colors.
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We were encouraged to make lines, similar to the ones on the left example.
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mather classes |
A black and white breakdown of all the images in the block patterns was provided on a worksheet.
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Mather handout |
Enlargement of some of the motifs used in the fabric example. These showed the simplicity of the images. I chose to use some for my blocks, as well as horizontal dividing bars to break up the designs. Again this was a starting point for our own take on the patterns.
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I used a light sticky tape for my 3/8" lines...way easier to do than drawing long straight lines and protecting the surface from my screwups while adding my designs.
I didn't remove the tape until all the drawings and coloring with pencils was done. Once removed, I washed all the areas with earth-toned subdued watercolor washes.
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The muted washes filled in all the blank spaces and didn't overtake any of the pencil sketching. I did add the shading on the stripes afterward with pencils as they were too blank for the rest of the design. I criss-crossed my brushstrokes to give the idea of warp and weft. Here you can see where I removed my outside tape and then just had to add one more swoop of the brush.
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The larger images on the right and left edges were what I imagined would be on a rug.
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I took some of the motifs from the right and enlarged them for the outside left, and similar for the right side. Again, experimenting with my take on the subject.
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Mather Classes |
I really love these Mather Classes for the different artists/artforms we explore each week. I really enjoyed both of these artforms and the information on Peruvian art.
Again, Mather Senior Classes are free on Zoom for
Seniors over 55....and are available, HERE.
I appreciate the interaction and being able to ask questions, share on a community facebook page...and most important LEARN new techniques and materials, in a safe and congenial space. The instructors I've had, are all Art Therapists and excellent.
Have you ever done
Artwork from a vacation trip?
Thanks always for visiting,
All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own unless identified, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown.
Thank you for your cooperation,
Sandi
Sandi