b mused: August 2012

August’s Postcard of the Month

A run of 21 this time! (and TWENTY SEVEN steps!)
It all started as I looked out the front window one day, admiring the viney 'trellis' I'd just put up to prop the Mallows.

And I saw a bee. Buzzing from flower to flower, collecting nectar, picking up pollen on her fuzzy little legs.

And we are ALL about the bees this time of year (more bee booty pix at the end of my musings)!!

So, even though I'm not that fond of purple, I decided to try to quickly break this down with colored pencils into color and form elements and see if I might have a workable composition to play with:

I have this beautiful set of 72 Derwent Watercolour Pencils, that I've had since I was NINE! My mother bought them for me shortly after we moved to England, in 1963. This is part of the cover of the now disintegrated box that they came in:

And this is the back cover with the list (36 originals remaining!) of the 72 colours:

Little bitty piece I did @25 years ago utilizing the 'watercolor' capacity of these beautiful little sticks:

Eventually, maybe 10 or 15 years ago, I bought a brand-new Derwent set:

But, back to the card evolution: I had a first stab at it:

Some things I liked, but not a lot (the bleeding bee stamp, purple...). This next one came much closer, but the stamped bee didn't show well against the brown.

Thus I came up with the composition you see at the top of the page.

And here's Bees to Be:

Mule's sweet tooth redeemed. BEES!!! Perfect little Reese's Peanut Butter Cup BEES!!

And then, the NEGATIVE SPACE!! v v v v v v v

So, I organized all my little dots and circles (and BEES):

And all the rest of the elements:

And started in on Step 1... OF TWENTY SEVEN!!! (scroll FAST - it's like a movie*!)

PHEW!!

How many BEES (per card) do you see (answer below)??!

I had them all done, laid out on my work table, and the landlord happened by, glanced at the array, and said "Oh! Watermelon!" Which, of course the colors evoke! And even little seeds! I'd not thought of this nice additional Augusty-type element. A little magic I didn't get in the way of, apparently.

*So, what I'm thinking with these production line pix is: Make little flip books outta them!! I can print (copy) them on to card stock and staple (or somehow otherwise bind) them together. :)

AND: I'm thinking I'm going to try to get a few of these done for Local 64's upcoming $100 Art Sale that's happening on Saturday, August 25th - 10am-5pm > 5 State Street, Montpelier. I have wall AND table space at this show/sale.

I'm thinking I might try to get rid of some of the masks at this sale,

Along with some collages:

I'll be framing and matting some of the overage from the monthly postcard runs, and selling these too.

I started August quite prolifically. The August card wanted still another iteration, and the Richmond Food Shelf asked me to donate a piece to the fundraising art show (30 local artists donated work!) - HeARTS for HUNGER - that opens at On the Rise Bakery on Monday for the month).

So... I got that one done: