Floral Doodlings

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More art can be seen at: http://fineartamerica.com/art/all/jan+steadman-jackson/all

Two of my favourite activities combined: drawing flowers and doodling!  Occasionally, I digress and draw something else that linked to inspiring me....music!

There are many opportunities in my employment when I can scribble away, doodling to my heart`s content. 

This latest addition to my blog has been accumulated over a long period of time and when, last week, I was having a clear out of paperwork in the office, I found it impossible to throw these etchings away.  Carefully, I cut each one out of the notepad and slipped them into an envelope, not really knowing what I would do with them, but sure I would find creative illumination in time.

Vibrantly gorgeous!!

Love, love, love the dark background emphasising the

beauty and daintiness of my swirls and twirls............

The mirrored effect on this image is striking and yet somehow soft.  A bright, airy picture that speaks of fun and gaiety......music and song. 

Promoting fun, sun and wistfulness to be enjoyed for it`s dreamy, reflective fineness of texture and fragility.

Almost nostalgic in it`s mood, the softness of this piece

emphasises it`s beauty perfectly.  Muted colours jostling for

supremacy yet not one overshadowing the other.

The daintiness of the flowers depict a sense of peace, enjoyment and contentment in a bustling world where few stop to take breath.

These two are the fun boys in the collection......

Loud and lustful.........demanding attention!!

Loving the art of collage, I felt excited about the conceptual insight and prospect of creating beautiful collages using the delicate designs I had randomly doodled many months before.   I feel confident that these doodles can be used for many other projects in future and look forward to working with them.

 An Oriental flavour to this one, I think.  Not quite sure why or indeed how, but that`s the feeling I get from it. 

I love it when a creative plan takes shape and surprises me by it beauty.  This was definitely the case whilst working with this dark heart design.  A simple doodle, colour subtracted and enveloped in a heart shape has made this particular design one of my favourites of this collection.  The magnified, obscured background allows the heart to appear set out from the background, yet nestled comfortably within the confines of the softly muted frame.

Working on commissions the last few months has made it difficult to produce some of my favourite genres in art and working with these doodles has inspired me and lifted my creative soul.  I hope those who view them will also feel uplifted and motivated as indeed, I am.

 When I discovered this wall layering effect, I was so excited and inspired to work with it on this collection.  The effect is akin to graffiti, something that has always fascinated me, and gave me a great rush of excitement to be able to play around with something so artistically raw and yet stunning in it`s presence. 

I chose the cold blankness of the breeze-block wall to emphasis the softness and delicacy of the curves and  swirls in my designs.  In my eyes it gives an almost anachronistic detailing to the image.

The darker bricks on the image below also give a totally different vibe to the original picture.  I might just have to buy this one myself.  I think it shows so much depth and interest.  It excites me!

I love how the delicacy of the flowers sit incredibly easily on the rough, cold backdrop.....a crumbling red brick wall transformed.  The opaque background allows the pretty shapes and colours to blend beautifully within it and yet adds significant intensity to draw the eye closer into the image. The overal coldness of the picture is somewhat softened by the use of muted colours in the flowers and floral images within it.............. I can`t wait to have this on my wall!

This picture sums up my opinion on natures` finest exactly!! What a fun project!!

Springtime

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The onset of Spring hopefully brings happiness and contentment as the first flowers push their way out of the soil, stretching towards the sun they need to enable them to flourish and live healthy lives.  The same could be said for us humans who also need and benefit from the warmth of the sun, to lighten our mood and make the world we live in seem a much brighter and nicer place.

With these thoughts in mind I added text to the images:

• A time to laugh
• A time to cry

as I wanted to add a hint of poignancy to the picture.

I wanted to give these pictures an oriental feel, hence the black penned swirls and the the overall colour scheme of both images.  I felt they added a sense of mystique together with dramatic contrast between the flowers and the dark, almost blurred, foreground.

It would have been too easy to have created a typically pretty picture with the flowers being so prominent, and the general composition of the picture, but I chose instead to give it a more interesting perspective by going towards a more atmospheric feel to the painting.  Using a dark vignette effect that shades off into the surrounding color at the edges, I hoped to achieve this.  I use this art effect regularly in my work as I appreciate the way the technique softens the edges of a picture in vignette style.

Colour Variations

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Floral compositions have always been some of my favourites.  I adore flowers and attempting to make them appear even more beautiful than nature intended has become a passion of mine.  The original source of this poster is a photograph of a common plant in my garden.  Nothing particularly stunning or indeed striking about the plant except for its pretty light blue delicate flowers.  Implementing several digital art effects whilst focusing on colour variations, the completed mixed media image has become a firm favourite with me. 

Variation in colour and composition combined can produce a striking effect in the overall vibrancy of the resulting image, as long as there is a common thread running through the collage, which is usually taken from a palette of four or five colours.

http://art-walk.ning.com/profile/JanSteadman

All things bright and beautiful !

My favourite style of art

 ~ ABSTRACT

All these images have been produced from one source; a canvas painting I did in watercolours.  I enjoy the flexibility and limitless access each source gives me when producing mixed media art.  The focus, for me, as always is the mixing, joining together and collaboration of a colour palette that allows me to produce an artistic creation in a vivid and aesthetically pleasing perfusion of colour.

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I dislike stereotypical ideas and recognise that my art demonstrates this to a certain degree.  I am, and always have been a non-conformist and endeavour to display my individuality through my art.

"All things bright and beautiful

all creatures great and small,

all things wise and wonderful,

the Lord God made them all.

Each little flower that opens,

each little bird that sings,

he made their glowing colours,

he made their tiny wings".