Squareathon Week 3

 

The last 7 days of Squareathon.

Day 15 - plum/inky/garden

Day 16 - coral/coastal/stars

Day 17 - black/lacy/semi circles

Day 18 - jewel tones/art deco/fruit

Day 19 - navy/striped/cat

Day 20 - turquoise/whimsical/city

Day 21 - butter yellow/geometric/bouquet

two ways

It's the same as the one above, I just added green to it.

I have three empty pages left in my little book.  What shall I fill them with?

Squareathon Weeks 1 and 2

I've been taking part in Melissa Doty's Instagram Squarethon this month which began on September 1st.  It's a 21 day challenge to use a square format and the optional prompts.  There are three prompts for each day and she has asked us to pick at least two to use each day.

I found a couple of 3 1/2 inch spiral bound mini scrapbooks in my stash.  They contain paper that is a little heavier than sketch paper yet not as absorbent as watercolor paper.  With a little effort I combined the pages from two of the books together into one so as to have enough pages for all 21 days with a few to spare for possible "do overs".  

I set up the first page as a contents page along with check boxes for completing the day and posting the completed work on Instagram.

Day 1 - warm colors/painterly/rainbow

Day 2 - mustard yellow/polka dot/bird

Day 3 - lilac/stormy/mountain

Day 4 - fave color/patterned/tea cup

Day 5 - monochromatic/elegant/word art

Day 6 - cobalt blue/leafy/moth

Day 7 - neutral colors/abstract/quilt

Day 8 - cerulean/architectural/moon

Day 9 - blush pink/tropical/vase

Day 10 - ruby red/loose/doodle

Day 11 - orange/rustic/houseplant

Day 12 - magenta/summery/portrait

Day 13 - olive green/vintage/feather

Day 14 - pale colors/modern/sky

Once again my art is all over the place with techniques and materials.  I have no set plan ahead of time and tend to grab what I have at hand.  Two of these pieces are created from paper.  The blush pink vase is full of collaged flowers and the orange and olive green feathers were cut from pieces of tea bag envelopes that I had saved that I came across while looking for something else.  I've used watercolor pencils, watercolor gouache, paint pens, and markers so far.  Like I said previously - no set plan.

One more week's worth will be coming up soon.  Then I have a week to decide if I'm going to participate in Inktober again this year or spend more time addressing some other craft projects that I've been meaning to get to.  We shall see.

Squareathon - September 2020 - Week 3

Day 15

Lonesome Dove

Larry McMurtry

Day 16

The Mermaid Chair

Sue Monk Kidd

(The story took place on Egret Island)

Day 17

The Time Traveler's Wife

Audrey Niffenegger

The wife in the story was a paper sculptor and this is a very mediocre attempt at a somewhat 3-D paper creation in my sketchbook.  

Day 18

The Color Purple

Alice Walker

Taken very literally.

Day 19 

TheYear of Magical Thinking

Joan Didion

Day 20 

Cold Comfort Farm

Stella Gibbons

"She liked Victorian novels.  They were the only kind of novel you could read while eating an apple."

Day 21

The Sun Also Rises

Ernest Hemingway

The crowd at the Festival of the Running of the Bulls.

And with that, we're done with Squareathon 2020.  This was definitely a challenge as I hadn't read most of the books.  But, being able to use Google to search for information (plots synopsis, characters, settings, quotes, etc.) enabled me to persevere.  I'm glad that it was only 21 days.  I think I would say that 14 days would have been better, but that was not my choice. (Although I could have stopped at 14, but I wanted to finished what I had started.)  

I have some card making to catch up on before Inktober starts.  

Squareathon - September 2020 - Week 1

I started the Squareathon on September 1st when it began but I haven't gotten around to posting here until now so I will break it up into 3 posts for the three weeks that it is running for.  This time Mel has chosen book titles as the prompts.  You don't have to had actually read the books (which was a good thing because I haven't read most of these), you just had to create something that would relate to some part of the book - the title, the setting, the subject matter, etc.  I googled the titles and read the synopsis and looked at images for each one to get ideas.  The only hard and fast rule of Squareathon is that the finished product be in the form of a square.  I have a small 5.5 x 5.5 watercolor journal that I've been using for Squarethon.  

Day 1 

The Night Circus

Erin Morgenstern

Day 2

All Creatures Great and Small

James Herriot

Day 3 

Little Women

Louisa May Alcott

Day 4 

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Mark Haddon

Day 5 

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

John Berendt

Day 6

1984

George Orwell

Day 7 

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Maya Angelou

That's the first week.  More to come.

Squareathon - Fall 2019 - Part 2

This seemed to go by quickly..... well, the whole month of September has gone by quickly.  Here are the last of the Squareathon prompts.

Day 9 - Moondance - Van Morrison

Day 10 - Mellow Yellow - Donovan

Day 11 - California Dreamin - The Mamas and the Papas

My memory of our trip to California.  The view from the hotel we stayed in was highlighted by rainbow shades of flowers on the hillside leading down to the beach.  We were there with my husband's company at the time.  He had earned a reward and this is where the ceremony was.  Spouses were allowed to accompany the employees at that time, so I got to go with him.  There were events that were planned and some that you could choose to do.  The one we chose was a sailing expedition up the coast..... so that could be us in this sailboat.

Day 12 - White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane

A lot of symbolism with this one.  One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small - the sailboats.  The water is painted like the chessboard.  The crown on one sail is for the red queen, the white knight is on the other.  And there are white rabbit clouds. 

  

Day 13 - Our House - Crosby, Stills, and Nash

"I'll light the fire, while you place the flowers in the vase that you bought today"

"Such a cozy room. The windows are illuminated by the evening sunshine through them"

And the sailboat is named TWO CATS.

Day 14 - The Lion Sleeps Tonight - The Tokens

And this one is a real stretch.  The openings in the brush are supposed to signify the sails of the sailboats, the boats being the patches of grass in the dirt below them...... whilst the lion sleeps.

Day 15 - Whiter Shade of Pale - Procol Harem

I love this song - in fact, this song, or the Bach melody that it is based on (Air on a G String) was played as the procession at our wedding.  The 16 Vestal Virgins mentioned in the song are represented by the white figures.  The Romans said they were the protectors of the fire.... thus the fiery sails.

Day 16 - She's a Rainbow - Rolling Stones

"See the sky in front of you - and her face is like a sail - speck of white so fair and pale"

"She combs her hair - she's like a rainbow"

I was glad to stick to my theme throughout this challenge, but I don't think I will put that restriction on myself for the next one..... whenever that is.  

Thanks to @melissadoty.art @andreadeanethompson and @hollyplatt for such great prompts, and such wonderful encouragement throughout the last 16 days.  If you are on Instagram, check out #squareathon to see some really great art!

Squareathon - Fall 2019

So this 15-day challenge sponsored by @melissadoty.art @andreadeanethompson and @hollyplatt on Instagram has prompts all relating to songs of the 60's and 70's.

I was trying to come up with a theme while we were fishing before the challenge began and seeing the names of the boats that passed by us on the dock gave me the idea of using sailboats as my theme.

Day 1 - Good Vibrations - The Beach Boys

Day 2 - Imagine - John Lennon

(Living life in Peace)

Day 3 - Aquarius - The Fifth Dimension

(The moon is in the seventh house and the symbol on the sail is that of Aquarius)

Day 4 - Tangled Up in Blue - Bob Dylan

Day 5 - Wild World - Cat Stevens

Day 6 - A Hazy Shade of Winter - Simon and Garfunkle

(my attempt at a flannel sail)

Day 7 - Blackbird - Beatles

Day 8 - Woodstock  - Joni Mitchell