Contemporary Art Works by Theresa - A Mother's Day Bouquet

A Mother's Day Bouquet

Pastel Pencil and Watercolor

(Daler Rowney 98 lb, Acid Free Pastel Paper)

12x9

2015

Here is a bouquet of Mother's Day Flowers.  I don't think I know one women who does not love flowers, and always enjoys recieving them on Mother's Day and truthfully any day of the year!

This was an interesting painting.  It has been quite a while since I have worked with Pastel Pencils.  (I believe the last one was my rendering of The Corn Poppy (interestingly named after the flower) by Dongen c. 1919).  Working with Pastel Pencil and watercolors gave this painting an interesting effect.  And because it is paper for pastels, the watercolors were gingerly applied.  

Contemporary Art Work: The Corn Poppy (after Dongen)

Portrait

The Corn Poppy (after Dongen, c. 1919)

Medium:  Pastel Pencils

Portraits I have done after the Great Masters are for my learning experience only.  

Contemporary Art Works: The Sybil of Delphi

Portrait

The Sybil of Delphi (after Michelangelo, c. 1509)

Medium:  Pastel Pencils

Portraits done after the Great Masters are done for my learning experience only.  

The Sybil of Delphi is unrolling a parchment scroll (not drawn here) and apparently turning towards the crowd to read it (I chose to only capture that in my work).  Michelangelo's work is a Fresco that hangs in the Sistine Chapel in The Vatican.  I had the awesome opportunity to visit The Sistine Chapel and viewed this painting for myself in May of this year.  I can tell you first hand that it is beyond amazing!

Art Work: The Girl With A Pearl Earring

Portrait - The Girl With A Pearl Earring (after Vermeer, c. 1665)

Medium:  Soft Pastels

Portraits done after the Great Masters are done for my learning experience only.  

It is possible that this painting by Vermeer is a portrait, in which the subject sat for Vermeer.  The girl is wearing an exotic turban, and the way she is gazing at us dreamily over her shoulder copies a style of portrait which was introduced by Titian's "Ariosto".  This girl is seen against a neutral, dark background, very nearly black, which establishes a powerful three-dimensionality of effect - a process recommended by Leonardo da Vinci.  

Art Work: Poppies

Poppies

Medium:  Prisma pencil for the flowers, and soft pastel colors for the background.  This work is done on black Bristol board.

The symbolism of the poppy has long been that of sleep, peace, and death.  Sleep because of the opium extracted from them, and death because of the common blood-red color of the red poppy in particular.  Poppies used as emblems on tombstones symbolize eternal sleep.  This symbolism was evoked in the children's novel "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", in which a magical poppy field threatened to make the protagonists sleep forever!  

Following the warfare that took place in the poppy fields of Flanders (which is the setting of the famous poem "In Flanders Fields") during WWI, red poppies have become a symbol of remembrance of soldiers who have died during wartime.  On a much lighter note, did you know that poppies grow like weeds on the side of most roads in Italy?  They do, and they are a most spectacular site!

Art Work: Olster The Fool

My next art project was taken from the book cover "The Imaginative World of the Reformation".  I had great fun doing it.  I decided to do this art project when I was taking a graduate class at Houston Baptist University and studying the church history of England.  (Remember:  that is where religion began).  The original piece was a wood carving.  Wood carving was very popular in early art.  This piece was created by Heinrich Vogtherr, The Younger, titled "The Fool".  I could not find the date that Heinrich completed this piece.  Heinrich however walked this earth from 1513 to 1568.    

Meet Olster The Fool, who was a court jester for Queen Elizabeth. (of the Tudor family line).

I am very happy with the work I did on this piece.

Medium: Soft Pastels