This has been a big week in our house due to Tony’s deteriorating health, so I have spent part of today relaxing and catching up on #CreativeJumpStart21. This was the perfect way for me to wind down a bit after a rough night where we didn’t get a lot of sleep. (yes, we have a plan for making tonight better!)
The day 13 #cjs20 artist was Mystele Kirkeeng – I love the textural quality of her work so was delighted to see her name pop up. I decided to concentrate on her mark making and background style so did the dress but skipped the face. (I’m also playing catch up with posting as Tony has been away so I got a bit behind)
This is the third time I’ve done CJS (Creative Jump Start). I love starting the year with daily art, learning new things and being inspired by amazing artists from around the world. You can find out more on Nathalie Kalbach’s website.
The first daily challenge went up this morning. As this is a paid workshop I won’t share all the details…
I followed Mystele Kirkeeng’s lead fairly closely. Early on, I decided I didn’t like to woman I’d drawn and was about to start again when I realised that would be against the theme of ‘play’ so I just kept going, and am ok with the final result. It’s quite different to what I normally do, but I can still see my hand in it – so yay for day 1!
Day two was about being inspired by the work of Mystele Kirkeeng. She mixes outsider art with folk art and it’s amazing! Her work uses lots of layers, collage, bright colours and mark making, and she often works over the top of an existing work.
In the same spirit, I worked over the top of a page I’d never finished and added lots of collage elements before doing the self-portrait in outsider-ish colours and adding symbols I love, such as the feather and flowers. I also painted the negative spaces in blocks of colour, something I don’t normally do, and love the effect. Although the self-portrait is pretty ho hum, this work feels like a real step forward because I love the way the background turned out.
BTW the word ‘shrinking’ and the text to the left of my body relate to my weight loss of around 37kg so far. Now that I am not so sick I am starting to feel the positive impacts of the weight loss (finally!).
Cath Sheard 