Matisse and Maria - figures and flowers

Looking for new inspiration, I said why not channel a master - Mr. Matisse! And a lovely contemporary artist who I admire, Maria Pace-Wynters (www.mariapacewynters.com). I appropriated his motifs and her palette with paper play to come up with a few new creations.

While i’m not on YouTube yet, I am gearing up to open a modest art stand in my front yard this summer. I need to recover some space in my house and sell some inventory.

You will see a sidewalk sign on 83rd Ave between 96th and 97th streets NW on Saturdays starting June from 10am to 3pm so come on by!

The first gallery here shows a painting progression of Matisse leaves in a cherry blossom vase. I have fun with vases, they are a great way to introduce abstraction and patterns not found in nature. The base of the painting is origami paper which going forward, I would replace with washi paper as the origami paper has a coating that makes it somewhat resistant to glue and is susceptible to buckling.

The next gallery shows a combined figure floral subject. I love the expression in Matisse’s portraits, highly distilled and effective. What better feminine combination is out there than women and flowers? In this case, the flowers were manifested as a floral print inspired by the origami paper base layer.

Materials include acrylic ink, fluid acrylics, crayon and of course, paper (both tissue and origami). Lots of acrylic matte medium was used to adhere the paper to the board. I use cradled birch board and both these pieces are 10”x14”. Finally, I pay homage to my favourite local artist, Maria Pace Wynters. Check out her fantastic work at www.mariapacewynters.com. I recently took an online workshop from her and the result is below. I’m quite happy with it, but it definitely looks like a copy, and not an original. She has managed to develop an inimitable style!

I hope to see you at my lemonade, I mean, art stand this summer. Come by and let’s talk art.

Until then, happy painting!

Meghana