Let's paint with $1 Watercolor paint! The annual inflation rate in the US accelerated to 7.9% in February of 2022, the highest since January of 1982, matching market expectations. In this age of inflation, I thought about how to draw more freely without being limited by the cost of materials. So what I came up with was watercolor paint for a dollar. If you buy these 24, you can spend $0.83 each, or less than $1. I finished two guinea pigs with this $1 watercolor paint as shown below, a 2H pencil to sketch, water, a piece of kitchen towel, and white acrylic paint. For reference, I don't use the eraser as often as possible. I've been training like that ever since. Because I don't like pencil marks left on drawings. However we can add an eraser here as needed. If possible, sketch with a 2H pencil to create soft lines. With watercolor it's important to lay down your light colors first and work towards the darker colors. Paint the white fur part with white acrylic color. At this time, mix a little brown color together and paint. It emphasizes the details of the eyes and fur. Treat the highlights with white acrylic paint. Here is the result. It's a one dollar watercolor, but I didn't have any trouble painting it. Rather, it seems that the colors and materials are minimal, making it simpler and easier to express.
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The blue rose Roses usually remain in our memory mainly as red, yellow, and pink or white. And blue roses cannot exist without artificially creating them. Because roses need a pigment called delphinidin to give them a blue light, it is a substance that cannot be produced in nature. That's why no matter how much you cross, you can't make blue roses. However, due to human efforts to overturn the impossible laws of nature and make it possible, we finally made blue roses in 2004. After 13 years of joint research, the blue rose was born between the Australian company Florizine and the Japanese company Suntory. In other words, flowers are artificially created by manipulating specific genes. Previously, when humans wanted to make blue roses, they dyed white roses. It is unique that roses can make their blue flowers without staining them individually. Perhaps that's why the flower language of the blue rose is the overcoming of the impossible and the love that doesn't give up. The blue color of the original flower expresses mysticism or the spirit of challenge that makes the impossible possible. Blue roses traditionally signify mysticism or the achievement of the impossible. And in sleeve myths, the blue rose was believed to bring youth or grant wishes. The blue rose meant something impossible or something you couldn't have because it couldn't be obtained naturally. Today, I took the time to draw a blue rose. As I always feel, blue flowers are mysterious but difficult to describe. Because blue has its energy, it often collides with flowers' splendor and bright power. The blue color presents meanings of depth, stability, confidence, loyalty, trust, wisdom, peace and intelligence. And also it can support with energy for calms, relaxes, protects. But it works negatively sometimes with depression, coolness and conservativeness. In the past, I have painted other blue flowers besides blue roses. The emotions I feel from blue flowers are mainly cold and melancholy. But this time, I drew a rose using blue, which is rather cold, limited, and above all depressing. I hope that the spirit of challenging the impossible of the blue rose itself can overcome the prejudice that blue flowers give.
International Women's Day Today is an international Women's Day. In 1908, over 150,000 American female workers crossed the streets of New York. It was a large-scale demonstration of women in history. They shouted for shorter working hours, higher wages, better working conditions and the right to vote for women. And a year later, the Socialist Party of America (SPA) announced Women's Day. In a nutshell, it was born out of the women’s rights movement in industrializing countries during the early 1900s. The Socialist Party of America first declared National Women’s Day in 1909. It would be observed on the last Sunday of February until 1913. In 1910, at the second International Conference of Working Women, a gathering of women from activist and political organizations in Copenhagen, the idea of an International Women’s Day was proposed and approved. The International Women's Day logo symbolizes the hope and action surrounding women's equality. The International Women's Day logo is a looping, arrowed circle with the female (or Venus) gender symbol at the inset. Purple, along with green and white are considered the colors of International Women's Day, according to the website. These colors have roots in the United Kingdom's Women's Social and Political Union from the early 1900's. Marked annually on March 8th, International Women's Day (IWD) is one of the most important days of the year to:
The flower that symbolises the day is the Mimosa flower. It was chosen by feminists in Italy as a symbol of strength for Women's Day. So, why should this International Women's Day be celebrated as such an important day? According to a United Nations Women's Agency study last year, in 13 countries around the world, one in two women (45%) said they had personally experienced or know of a woman who experienced violence during the COVID-19 outbreak. Among these, verbal violence and deprivation of essential resources for life were reported as the most common forms of violence. Besides, after the establishment of the Taliban government in Afghanistan in August of last year, women's rights have retreated. Despite the fact that countries are commemorating this day and making efforts to improve women's human rights, it is a sign that clear discrimination and violence against women are still taking place. In the art world, Frida Kahlo, the national painter and social activist of Mexico, is also seen as a symbol of feminism. Frida Kahlo, who suffered from severe complications from a disability caused by polio as a child and a spinal cord injury suffered at the age of 18, expressed her pain through art. She is one of the greatest painters of the 20th century, with his primitive and splendid paintings of surrealism, symbolism and Mexican colors. Despite the troubled times of gender inequality of the 1900s, Kahlo was honest about being a woman. And that is what that puts her, even now, at the forefront of being a feminist. Never once did she hide, cower or expect to be shielded from the harsh realities of her life. In addition to this, I would like to introduce Mary Kelly as a female artist who has contributed to the feminist movement that has come to impress me personally. Mary Kelly is an American conceptual artist, educator and writer. She has made an extensive contribution to the feminist discourse through her narrative installations and theoretical writings. During the 1970 ’s her work her was dedicated to her experiences of pregnancy and child raising as Antepartum (1973) and Post-Partum Document (1973-79). She documented the process of giving birth, raising a son, and parenting as one of her works of art. The contents of the diaper used by the child, the baby food menu, and the conversation with the child are recorded as objects. Her work is meaningful in that it is not in the form of a parenting diary or postpartum diary, but objectively or functionally analyzing and listing the experiences of a woman herself. Because these candid documents help you find your identity as a woman herself. Women artists were also discriminated and marginalized while living in a human rights blind spot where there was no concept of women's human rights. They weren't mainstream, they appealed for their existence with great energy and passion. <The History of Western Art> by Ernst Gombrich, which records more than 3000 years of art history. Only Sixteen female artists are 'officially' recorded in this 800-page book. When there was no concept of women's rights, for a woman to live as an artist includes the meaning of living the life of a pioneer. Moreover, for women to live the life of an artist requires greater sacrifice, passion, and courage. Reference:
https://www.soundoflife.com/blogs/people/how-frida-kahlo-broke-all-conventions-and-shaped-feminism https://womennart.com/2019/06/05/post-partum-document-mary-kelly/ Maria Primachenko The Odessa Museum of Art in Ukraine preserves more than 10,000 works since the 16th century, including early works by the pioneer of abstract art Wassily Kandinsky. In addition to this, another contemporary art museum in Ukraine, The Ivankiv Museum, also preserves the works of the folk painter Maria Primachenko, who is called the national painter. Unfortunately, it is said that 25 of her paintings were burned down during the Russian invasion. Maria Oksentiyivna Prymachenko was a Ukrainian folk art painter, who worked in the naïve art style. A self-taught artist, she worked in painting, embroidery and ceramics. In 1966, Prymachenko was awarded the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine. Born in a rural Ukrainian village, spent the majority of her life in the village of Bolotnya in the Ivankiv Raion, Kyiv Oblast, situated only 30 km (19 mi) from Chernobyl. Most of all, she was unable to attend school except for four years in all her life, and had to help with farming, sewing, knitting. Also, She had physical impairment from polio, which impacted her life and art. She drew often many gouache paintings with watercolor. Her works were inspired by Ukrainian, and in particular Polesian, folk traditions. They describes references to the natural world and to fairy-tales. Below are some of her representative works. The picture below shows the Ukrainian flag with a yellow field and blue sky as a motif. Below is the name, " May that nuclear war be cursed(1976)". Eight years after she drew this picture, a nuclear disaster struck the nearby Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The peasant couple in the picture is drawing water from a well. The couple look very rich and happy. There are chickens around, pecking at food. A stork perched on the roof will bring great luck to this house. Until the invasion of Russia, Ukraine was the home of the Ukrainians, who had such a beautiful everyday life like a fairy tale. But today we have just to watch a little boy, who separated from his parents and weeping alone, crossing the border into Poland. Who destroyed this fairy-tale town and trampled on the dreams and hopes of a child? It has been 12 days since Ukraine was invaded by Russia. As each day is added, the sacrifices of innocent civilians are increasing. I pray that the war will end soon and true peace will come. Below is an acrylic painting I drew a while ago. The colors and motifs seem to represent the hopes of Ukraine. In the end, I hope that the Ukrainians will win everything and restore peace. Marc Chagall All the things this artist suffered were war and politics. He was an ordinary painter who wanted to dream, pursue love, and lead a stable and happy life. For him, he had to paint a picture in danger, riding the big waves of his life, such as the two wars, the Bolshevik Revolution and the Nazi rule. This artist was the realist Marc Chagall, who painted a visionary. He was born in modern-day Belarus, then part of the Russian Empire, was of Belarusian Jewish origin. In 1906, he moved to Saint Petersburg which was then the capital of the Russian Empire and the center of the country's artistic life with its art schools with discrimination. At that time, in Russia, especially rural Jews, they were always discriminated against as second-class citizens. Since Jews were not permitted into the city without an internal passport, he managed to get a temporary passport from a friend. He enrolled in a prestigious art school and studied there for two years. In 1910 Marc Chagall relocated to Paris, the heart of the arts at the time. Arriving in Paris, Chagall was able to see with his own eyes the paintings of the masters he admired such as Manet, Monet, Van Gogh, and Matisse. He must have loved painting and art and had to learn painting in a repressed atmosphere, but how happy would he have been when he arrived in Paris, where art and freedom exist and saw the paintings of Impressionist painters? He made Paris his second hometown and even changed his name to French. However, Paris at that time was a place dominated by Cubism centered on Picasso, the founder of Cubism. Although beautiful and dreamy, Chagall's paintings, which were closer to poetry rather than paintings, were not recognized as a single unique style of painting. He mostly hangs out with his poets, nostalgia for his hometown, his views of love into his work. During his time in Paris, Chagall was constantly reminded of his home in Vitebsk. During this period, Chagall still met and interacted with many painters in the city of art, married Bella, the woman he loved, and seemed to continue a happy life. However, the border was closed due to the outbreak of World War I in 1914. It was a moment when a dark cloud fell on Chagall's life, which had worked out so well. After marrying his fiancee Bella in Russia, he thought he would be able to return to Paris, but World War I forced him to stay in Russia. Then, in 1917, the world's first communist revolution, the Bolshevik Revolution, took place in Russia. The communist revolution first abolished the policy of discrimination against minorities. At this time, Chagall rose to the position of head of the Vitebsk Art School, and in his hopes he tried to make his hometown an art city like Paris. However, his painting and artistic activities were suppressed because he did not paint pictures that glorified the communist revolution. He fled Russia with his wife Bella in 1922 and returned to Paris. But at that time Paris was under the control of Nazi Hitler. Jew Chagall was more and more persecuted, and for resistance, he was awarded the White Crucifixion. The White Crucifixion emphasizes the suffering of Jesus and the Jewish people. Indirectly, it symbolizes the Jews suffering under Nazi rule. At the sides violent acts against Jews occur such as the burning of a synagogue and invaders. And in the center, Jesus is shown crucified wearing a prayer shawl as a symbol that he is Jewish. However, Chagall, who had resisted this aggressively, could not withstand the growing oppression of the Jews and left for the United States with his wife and daughter. At that time, there were many European artists who fled from the Nazis, like Chagall, in America. The United States quickly became the center of modern art. Artists reached their heyday, creating something again in America, the land of opportunity. Unfortunately, however, Chagall did not pick up a brush for a long time, despite being at the center of this second heyday of art. This is because Bella, the wife he loved most and shared with him the hardships of his life, died of acute hepatitis. Perhaps that's why the paintings of that time look somewhat gloomy and sad compared to his fantastic and hopeful messages seen even in the previous war. In the end, however, he overcame the grief of letting Bella go through painting and art. He found meaning in sorrow and pain, and his work deepened even more. By this time he had also gained a reputation as an artist. He returned to his second hometown, Paris, to end his long wandering life. He is hailed as a virtuoso in the art world and even watched his work hang at the Louvre Museum. In 1973 he was also able to set foot on the Russian soil, his hometown, to which it seemed he would never be able to return. His life, which had been destroyed by the ruins of war and ideological conflict, was ultimately saved through art. He always saw love as if in a dream, even in a desperate situation, and he carefully said that in that love is our answer. As the war in Ukraine escalates, we often see warm news. Seeing the Ukrainians comforting hungry Russian soldiers by handing them hot tea and bread, I think that this is the kind of love Chagall wanted. It may sound clichéd, but love that understands and cares for each other has the power to stop the conflicts of war and truly help us keep going. |
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