Summary: January Art

Our first month of Inspiration Collaboration was a great success! It's never too late to join in. If you're inspired to create based on any of our monthly Inspiration Images, we want you to submit your creation anytime! Send us your art and we'll add it to our monthly summary.

Here is a recap of the Inspiration Collaboration art created this month in order of receipt:

"Sentimental Stargazer Lilies" by Helen Eaton
blog:   wordweaverart.blogspot.com
  Stargazer Lilies will always remind me of my momma.  She had a long row of flowers that she loved... irises, day lilies, tiger lilies... One year I bought her a pot of blooming stargazer lilies for Mother's Day.  After they finished flowering inside, she replanted them into her row, and they bloomed again every year.  We dug those stargazer lilies up when they moved to Northwest Arkansas and replanted them beside the porch where she continued to enjoy their beautiful pink blooms each summer. 
 This particular stargazer grew in my own flower bed.

"Visions of Unspoken Stories" by Darlene Awalt
instagram: dream.imagine.believe
 If a tree could talk, oh what joys and sorrows it would have to share.  
What story do you have untold under the tree?

Embroidered Cardinal Dish Towel by AJ
 I saw the picture of the cardinal and thought a cardinal would be just the thing to brighten up my old grey dish towels.  I did these completely freehand.

"Primary Colors" by Nelvia's Fine Art
instagram: nelviamcgrath
For inspiration I used a combination of Helen's crayons and Sara's foggy landscape description.  The crayons made me think primary colors - so painted in shades /tints of primary colors.  Sara's comment we are past and future is yet to be determined - so thought this man was representative of his choices - you get to determine what his future might be. 

"Kaguya's Virtue" by Nelvia's Fine Art
 instagram: nelviamcgrath

Bamboo is very symbolic in Chinese and other Oriental cultures, representing moral character/virtue, strength/resilience, modesty and loyalty. However, this is based on the Japanese legend of the princess Kaguya, a moon goddess.

"Om" by Sandra Walker
 mmmquilts.com
 I've wanted to make a couple of my extra-special yoga students a little something for a while now; each year they bring me a Christmas gift and they both have written and said some truly beautiful words to me that I treasure. This Sanskrit sign for 'om' or 'aum' , drawn out slowly,' ah-oo-mmm' is said to be the sound of The Universe and that all living beings/organisms emit this deep hum.
You can read more about the project on my blog:
 https://www.mmmquilts.com/2020/01/project-quilting-111-notably-numeric.html

"I Like Fat Birds" by Whitney Eaton

@whitneykay93

"Snow Berries" by Sara Harley
instagram: saraharley.photos
I love photographing birds and trees, they are my favourite things to capture with my camera. It was to my great surprise that Helen's painting "Snow Cardinal" inspired me to work with the colour red rather than the subject of birds. I spent a couple of weeks taking photographs of different red subjects (a difficult task in a grey Nova Scotia winter) and experimenting with my photo library on my computer. In the end, I settled on the simple, but beautiful, subject of winterberry branches. Nova Scotia winters aren't so dull after all.

"Lady Bird" by Nancy MacDonald
instagram: nancy.m.artist
 Recently I spied a plump little female Cardinal and her partner sitting in the quince bush outside my window. I don't think I'd ever seen a female up close before and I fell in love with her colours. Her bright red partner was pretty impressive but the female had a little red cap, some beautiful red in her wings and tail feathers but most of her body was covered with creams, yellows and greys with a hint of red on the edges that made her look like she was blushing. When a little painting of a red Cardinal popped up as inspiration for the #inspirationcollaboration I had no doubt that I wanted to give this little lady some attention.
 

"Journey" by Cheryl McMickle 

web: cherylmcmickleart.weebly.com

 When I saw the prompt for "Sentimental Journey" I knew that I was already working on the same theme in my journal. This journal entry is a mixed media piece that includes collage, stamping, watercolor and transfer. Each journal page is its own journey so this work is a creative journey about my life journey.

"Manhattan Squall" by Lynn Hanousek
Facebook: Lynn Hanousek Designs
My paintings are generally quite colorful. When I saw “Barely There” I felt the challenge to paint something with a minimal use of color. I’ve done several silhouetted NYC skylines that have included beautifully colored sunsets that I recall from driving back home over one of the city bridges. In December we had a squall and when I saw the satellite footage, it was amazing how it rolled in. I imagine this is what it might have looked like if I was in Manhattan that day.

"Let's Stick Together" by Sara Harley
instagram: saraharley.photos
When I saw Helen's "Scattered Crayons" painting, I thought of two things...childhood and colour. Then I thought of life savers. Every Christmas, Santa used to bring me a "story book" filled with 5 rolls of life savers candy. I searched high and low this month so I could buy a roll of life savers for a photo shoot. It took me weeks, but I finally found some in a store I seldom go to. And, just like a child, I played with my candy.

"Everyone's There" by Lindsey Gann
instagram: lindesy_g

"Color Names" by Jeanne King
You can’t have been an elementary  school teacher without developing a special relationship with crayons. Forty years ago, they were the medium of choice in the classroom. Now, they’re something of a novelty as markers seem to have taken their place. I carried a tub of crayons from one classroom to another over the years. Although I’m now retired, I can still smell them, still see the waxy stain on the  paper if they’ve been left in the heat, still remember the pleasure of tearing off the wrapper, and still enjoy the many effects that can be achieved with the simple crayon . I’ve always delighted in the imaginative, descriptive names given to the colors and this piece celebrates that delight. 

"Color of Friendship" by Julie Brandt
web: https://www.etsy.com/shop/JujuBeePaints

Bouquet jolie! 

So many colors of a friendship.

Blue daisies given to temper the blues.

Brilliant yellows, and a soft orange to warm your spirit by.

Purple-lavender petals say what is true,

I care about you.

Sturdy stems for these beautiful blooms urge you on,

Despite your grief or sorrow.

Sweet leaves to rest upon sustain me.

I care about you.

Fuchsia powers through the dark times,

Radiating light and love,

Meditations on this brilliant palette of friendship.

Someone cares.

 I care.

By Julie Brandt

"You Can't Miss It!" by Helen Eaton
https://wordweaverart.blogspot.com/

When I first saw Sara's photo, I thought, "Wait... I don't see anything!"  Then I looked closely.  There's much to notice, but it's Barely There."  There's a shoreline with trees and houses all subtly reflected in the water.  Sky and water seemingly one in the same but divided by the strip of life.
My mind veered the opposite direction from subtle.  I'm fascinated by people who paint their houses with loud colors... brightly colored houses in Scandinavia where much of their year is white... rows of happily colored beach houses... the random orange or purple house on an otherwise normal-colored-house neighborhood street.