Discovering The Gleaners by Jean-Francois Millet

 

I am in the process of organizing and listing my auction winnings from THE BIG ONE. I always like to do a little research on each item before listing them. A little study of art history in this case. I bought the prints and paintings in lots but the auctioneer pointed out this one as “A print of the gleaners”. It looked vaguely familiar but the title is what caught my attention. So I googled “the gleaners”. and found a copy of the image with the name of the artist Jean-Francois Millet. Then I did a search on his name and found the following information.

~ HISTORY ~
"Jean-François Millet (October 4, 1814 – January 20, 1875) was a French painter and one of the founders of the Barbizon school in rural France. Millet is noted for his scenes of peasant farmers; he can be categorized as part of the naturalism and realism movements.
This is one of the most well known of Millet's paintings, The Gleaners (1857). While Millet was walking the fields around Barbizon, one theme returned to his pencil and brush for seven years—gleaning—the centuries-old right of poor women and children to remove the bits of grain left in the fields following the harvest.”

Another interesting tidbit that was included was this
”The painting can be seen hanging on the wall of Sheriff Andy Taylor's house in many episodes of the original Andy Griffith Show." All information gleaned from Wikepedia

I’ve been experimenting with setting up different still lifes to showcase my shop listings. I gleaned a bit of oats from our fields for this picture. I hope you enjoy, isn’t art interesting?

This antique print is currently listed in my Etsy shop Metaphor Alchemy here:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/113446203/the-gleaners-vintage-framed-print-jean

Auction Winnings - THE BIG ONE

 A couple of weeks ago I attended an auction. I enjoy the thrill of the hunt but most times can control my buying impulses. In fact, the last two times I had attended this auction house I left without a single winning bid. Well, except for some empty boxes to use as packing since they are available for FREE. Somehow all the conditions were right and I had the opportunity for winning bids on a large amount of items. A HUGELY ENORMOUS LARGE amount of items. I had to call my husband to come and help. We filled his pickup truck and my car. WHAT WAS I THINKING!!!

You probably are wondering what possible conditions were there for me to obtain so much. Here they are:
1. Auction with a large amount of items.
2. Large amount of similiar items.
3. Rainy weather
4. Packer football game later
5. Small buying crowd
Equals low bids.

We unpacked my husband's truck that night. I left all the items in my car for the next day. I was exhausted from the bidding adrenalin rushes and the loading and unloading. Above is a couple of pictures showing a portion of my purchases. I ended up with a lot of antique and vintage maps, prints, and original paintings. Now I need to organize them, find a place to put everything other than in our garage. Find out what I actually bought since many of the items were sold in lots. Plus there are many other items.
Next the items need to be cleaned and in some cases repaired. Countless photo shoots, research, listing. Then hopefully packing if I sell any of it in my Etsy shops or eBay. WHAT WAS I THINKING!!! There will be more posts to come as I go through my purchases from THE BIG ONE.

Metaphor Alchemy – Etsy Shop

 

Shipping day for my Etsy shop Metaphor Alchemy. Something for me to aspire to,  x 5 per week. I do enjoy wrapping the packages in brown paper bags, tying them with twine and adding tags with a key for creativity. Time to get back to work…

Antique Mechanic's Creeper

 I currently have this antique mechanic's creeper listed in my Etsy shop - https://www.etsy.com/listing/109822249/antique-mechanics-creeper-industrial. Old wood with a patina of time and metal, two of my favorite components make up this cart. The shadow, my favorite guy!

I took a series of pictures while my husband graciously posed for me. I had this idea for awhile but I needed the following conditions: A sunny day (for shadow); Mid day sun (otherwise the shadow would be too elongated for my purposes), Husband available (to pose shadow on cart).

I manipulated the photo, adjusting the contrast, shadows and highlights to make the creeper more noticeable. Below are some additional poses not manipulated in a photo program.

 Mechanics lay on creepers to facing up to roll under cars when they are working on them. Most larger shops now have a hoist to lift cars up high enough that you can stand while working on them.

Kitchen Mural

I painted this mural on my kitchen wall about 15 years ago when my husband was out of town for a week.  He was surprised when he came home. We live in an area that has several historic fieldstone houses and it has been a dream of mine to live in one. So I painted my dream complete with rooster and a portrait of our cat Milo peering out the window.  Since then we have added a real fieldstone wall to the three season room between our house and garage.
This mural has been the backdrop for pictures of many birthdays and other family gatherings.
It has also been a dream of mine to have a hobby farm. Hanging on the wall are a couple farm implements including shafts and an evener for a goat cart and part of a silo ladder.




I adore old farm buildings. When we were searching for the hobby farm of our dreams we found that most places were overpriced or out of our price range so we built new.

Our cat Milo has passed away years ago but I found his portrait sitting in the window comforting.

A reminder of what once was.

November 2011 our last old goat passed on and all that is left of a shed full of animals is our 16 year old chicken. It’s time to find a new dream, I am just not sure what!

I have been thinking about and talking about painting over this mural for a couple of years. It’s not that I didn’t like it anymore, just that it felt so limiting as to what I could do with that wall. So last weekend while Mark was out of town I painted over it. I guess that I hadn’t discussed my future plans with my son as when he stopped home and seen what I had done he wondered if I had gone mad and wildly painted over it in a fit of rage. Perhaps a bit…

The wall is done. I painted it a lovely shade of gray like those I have been seeing in magazines and on the internet. I’m now  wondering if I made a mistake. The color looks so solid, so sad. There’s no going back now.

So I bought some roses to cheer myself up.

My intention is to use this wall for photo shoots and to alternate art. Adjacent to the wall is a North window for natural light.
Time to paint some new dreams…

Our City Dreams - Documentary

Tonight I watched the Documentary "Our City Dreams" on Netflix . A filmmaker tracks five female artists whose stories are tied to New York City. 

First I was inspired to do printmaking. Next I wanted to sew. Then I wanted to work in clay. I did not want to perform. Lastly I thought about getting older...Perhaps tomorrow at least one aspect of creativity will be explored...and not just the simply getting older part.

Nubian Goat – Ceramic Sculpture

I was dusting today…rather than making art. I have also been thinking about which direction I should go next with my art.

Now that I have this sculpture all cleaned up I decided to share it on my blog. 

This is a sculpture of our first goat Olivia. She was a Nubian goat. They are my favorite breed.

Nubians are very personable, but probably least tolerant of winter weather. Their long ears get cold easily.

A happy goat is either eating or chewing their cud.

The clay was high fired and then I painted it with washes of acrylic paint. The sculpture is about 12” long.

Time to get back to cleaning…

Metaphor Alchemy–Etsy Shop in Reality

 

Time to get organized!

This is the back corner of my basement. Soon to be the dedicated space for the items in my Etsy shops - Metaphor Alchemy, RAEvN’s Nest and RAEvN’s Treasures.

RAEvN’s Nest is my shop featuring art created by myself.

RAEvN’s Treasures is my thrift shop.

Metaphor Alchemy is my shop dedicated to mostly antique tools and components for your artistic creations.

Three shops is too many for me to keep up with, but unless I figure out a better system it will stay this way.

Here is my newly organized shipping center. The library cabinet fit perfectly on the shelf so it will be used to store and organize small items for my shops.

Here is a metal storage cabinet for packing material, padded envelopes and USPS boxes. This is what I have done so far.

Time to get back to organizing!

Or take a nap…

Bleeding Hearts Sketchbook Watercolor Study

 

My favorite flowers. A watercolor study in my sketchbook with colored pencils. After seeing it on my blog draft…I think that I need a bit of pink someplace on the background.

Winner of The Sketchbook Challenge Blog Hop

And the winner of the Sketchbook Challenge blog hop is:

Lisa Chin

http://somethingcleveraboutnothing.blogspot.com

(A 10yd combination package of Mistyfuse)

Congratulations!

The Blog Hop is Here Today!

Today I am hosting the blog hop to celebrate the release of the book THE SKETCHBOOK CHALLENGE of which I am a contributing artist.

The book is available here:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Sketchbook-Challenge-Techniques-Inspiration-Achieving/dp/0307796558

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-sketchbook-challenge-sue-bleiweiss/1106242576

ArtPlantae: http://www.artplantaebooks.com/book/9780307796554

My prize, donated from generous Mistyfuse, to be awarded to some lucky participant is:

From Mistyfuse (www.mistyfuse.com) A 10yd combination package of Mistyfuse that includes 6 yards of White and 2 yards each of Black and Ultraviolet and a Goddess Sheet. Total retail value: $48!

For a chance to win simply leave a comment on this blog post. I will close the comments at 10pm on July 6 (comments extended to July 8) and choose a winner using the random generator. I will then write a blog post announcing the winner. Comments are closed at 116.

Are you wondering how to use Mistyfuse? Leslie Tucker Jenison has and excellent tutorial here:

http://leslietuckerjenison.blogspot.com/2012/06/sketchbook-challenge-book-blog-hop.html

To see how a message from a fortune cookie inspired a journal page see my previous post here:

http://kimraenugent.blogspot.com/2012/07/fortune-cookie-inspired-journal-page.html

The Sketchbook Challenge Book blog hop is sponsored by:

Mistyfuse http://www.mistyfuse.com

ArtPlantae Today http://artplantaetoday.com/

Gelli Arts http://www.gelliarts.com/

Joggles http://www.joggles.com

Sue Pelland Designs http://suepellanddesigns.com/

ProChemical and Dye http://prochemicalanddye.com/home.php

The Thread Studio http://www.thethreadstudio.com/

Blue Twig Studio http://www.bluetwigstudio.com/

The Artist Cellar http://artistcellar.com/

The Blog Hop schedule (I would recommend stopping by all of these blogs, even if their prize has already been won, lots of wonderful inspiration!)

June 26:

Jill Berry http://jillberrydesign.com/blog/

Sue Bleiweiss http://www.suebleiweiss.com/blog

June 27:

Violette http://www.violette.ca/

Kathyanne White http://kathyanneart.blogspot.com/

June 28:

Kathy Sperino http://finishinglinesbyksperino.blogspot.com/

Leslie Tucker Jenison http://leslietuckerjenison.blogspot.com/

June 29:

Jamie Fingal http://jamiefingaldesigns.blogspot.com/

Lynn Krawczyk http://fibraartysta.blogspot.com/

July 2:

Jackie Bowcutt http://stitchworks-jackie.blogspot.com/

Lyric Kinard http://lyrickinard.blogspot.com/

July 3:

Jane Davies http://janedavies-collagejourneys.blogspot.com/

Kim Rae Nugent http://kimraenugent.blogspot.com/

July 5:

Carla Sonheim www.carlasonheim.wordpress.com/

Carol Sloan www.carolbsloan.blogspot.com/

July 6:

Susan Brubaker Knapp http://wwwbluemoonriver.blogspot.com/

Diana Trout dianatrout.typepad.com

July 9:

Tracie Lyn Huskamp www.thereddoor-studio.blogspot.com/

Judi Hurwitt www.approachable-art.blogspot.com

July 10:

Jane LaFazio http://janeville.blogspot.com/

Kelli Nina Perkins: http://ephemeralalchemy.blogspot.com/

Fortune Cookie Inspired Journal Page – Seahorse

My journal page from yesterday 7–1-2012. I just notice that I dated it July 31, hmmm….

A fortune cookie was the inspiration for this journal page.

The fortune cookie reads You will soon be crossing warm waters for a fun vacation. I looked in an old atlas for a place that had "warm waters". The coast of California looked like a "fun" place that I would like to "vacation". I collaged a portion of the coast of California with the claim ticket and fortunes from my take-out meal. The next challenge for me was to decide what to draw. My first thought was a turtle but I couldn't find a picture in my picture file that I liked. Since I wanted to sketch outside I didn't want to use my computer for a reference.

A picture of a seahorse caught my eye. In the description it said that they live in "warm waters". I used colored pencils to draw the Seahorse. I like colored pencils for collage work because you can vary the amount of imagery (In this case a map) that you allow to show through. The armour plates covering the Seahorse’s body was difficult to replicate. Then I painted a wash of raw umber and pthalo blue Golden Fluid Acrylics.

Now that I see the above journal page posted, I feel that I need to go back and add some more journaling and finishing touches.

Finished journal page below!