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l'Artista Blog

March 15, 2009
by Bonnie Porter
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PAINT DAY for Bell’Arte students. Each student made a monoprint of a Gerber daisy. My acrylic flower painting was laid on the table under an 18X20 sheet of glass. As the young artist painted his rendition of the flower with primary colors of tempera, an original piece of art emerged within minutes. We all cried out “drum roll” and pounded the tabletop as the artist prepared to quickly lay down his plain sheet of paper on top of the still-wet paint and then peel it away. “Hey, it’s like peeling off a tattoo” exclaimed one of the children! Voila! A mirror image “print” of the flower painting appeared on the white paper. And then a ghosted second print, and sometimes even a third “ghost” image could be printed.

March 1, 2009
by Bonnie Porter
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BELL’ARTE students are proud of their work!

A handful of serious, but fun-loving, young artists meet in my home/studio every Friday afternoon. We start with a warm-up exercise and then get down to work on a project inspired by a Master Artist. Current artist: Albrecht Durer, the greatest Renaissance artist of northern Europe. His animals—drawings, paintings, etchings, woodcuts, etc.—comprise a pictorial zoo.

Right now we’re studying Birds, rendering them in different medium, starting with sketchings and colored pencils. After drawing these backyard birds from calendar photos, we used wallpaper scraps to position the birds on branches on a background color similar to the one in the photo.

February 26, 2009
by Bonnie Porter
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BELL’ARTE classes are underway!

A proud second grade artist, In-the-style-of Albrecht Durer, “The Hare”, shown above.

Nine young students sketched and colored and played shape games. First, they sketched a bird from my family room mural. Then they drew a tropical bird, similar to those found in Mona Brookes‘ book, DRAWING WITH CHILDREN, and colored it with colored pencil. We then mounted the drawings on 8X10 wallpaper remnants.

Their homework assignment this week is to read the brief bio about Albrecht Durer and render a likeness of Durer’s famous rabbit.

February 9, 2009
by Bonnie Porter
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MONDAY MONTAGE. Brita…A WORK IN PROGRESS!

. . . an on-going drawing and painting journey as I explore the techniques of Master Artist, Carl Larsson. I will post a copy of the painting, too, for critique and comparison to my work (left).

Carl and Karin Larsson are Swedish artists of the Arts & Crafts Movement era. Carl (1853-1919) is known worldwide for his paintings of his home and family. Karin, a textile designer, also created an interior design style that continues to inspire interior designers today.

Living in Helsinki in the 70’s, I was immediately drawn to his works, perhaps because Larssons’ paintings capture the Scandinavian way of life and a different cultural heritage I was experiencing for the first time. We had three preschoolers in that season of life. And I was overwhelmed with the adjustments necessary to survive the blustery weather and the metropolitan European city lifestyle. A far cry from the American Southwest. . . . From the land of beige with blazing sunsets and occasional rainfall to the land of forests, lakes and never-ending snow.

Now, in the process of developing a series of art lessons in-the-style of Carl Larsson, I chose to copy this winter scene favorite, “Brita with Candles and Apples”. I am still working on drawing figures and painting portraits in watercolor. So sketching Brita was a challenge for me in itself.

One intriguing part of breaking down this project in order to understand Larsson’s style and techniques has been the investigation of his palette. The reproduction I chose to use as a reference image was printed on shiny Christmas wrapping paper (from Germany) and so I selected Winsor red to capture the brilliant contrast to the stark white background.

However, since then I’ve found other reproductions of the same painting with completely different tones and values in both the little girl’s dress and the background. So after I finish this one, I intend to do another one with a more subtle palette. I’m wondering which reds he actually used and whether or not I can find anything written by him/about him which might describe his color palette.

Look for more postings re:Larsson’s techniques. His painting style, in combination with his wife’s design style, became a trendsetter for what is now known as The Swedish Style of Design.

January 9, 2009
by Bonnie Porter
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MONDAY MONTAGE. “to everything there is a season. . . .”

From the gardens of Tuscany and vineyards of Chianti . . . to the gardens and vineyards of my East Cobb Atlanta neighborhood, I continue to find inspiration for sketching and painting.

My most recent watercolor interpretation of the garden in Tuscany where I started painting is looser, more wet-into-wet, like my sketchbook series. Now I want to re-visit this same Chianti garden via a large canvas and my tubes of artists’ acrylics. Then I plan to see what happens when I dig out my fabric remnants and see where that journey takes me. . . among the vineyards and terracotta pots of Bell’ Italia.

November 2, 2008
by Bonnie Porter
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CAPTURING FALL COLORS! One of life’s simple pleasures—making prints with fruit and vegetable stamps. Recycle paper and paper bags by stamping and creating notecards, wrapping paper, gift bags, etc.

Caution: this project is addictive! My husband wondered what I was “working on” for such a long time in the kitchen. . . .