17 July 2009

lascaux in july


'a painted prehistoric landscape is always more beautiful than a real one, because there's more there. everything is more sensual, and one takes refuge in its beauty. and man needs spiritual expression and nurturing. it's why, even in the prehistoric era, people would scrawl pictures of bison on the walls of caves. man needs music, literature, and painting - all those oases of perfection that make up art - to compensate for the rudeness and materialism of life.'
- fernando botero

the july art bead scene challenge is the lascaux cave paintings in france... what an awesome choice for so many reasons... the haunting beauty... the connection to people past who made their mark...

i love working with a natural palette and variety of textures... so this was a joy for me... but at the same time, i wanted to keep it simple, reducing my design to necessary elements and maintaining a primitive look... because i could see how it would be very easy for me to keep pulling from my inventory in this color scheme... i tried to distill the design to capture the ambiance of the setting...



the use of vintaj brass seemed like a no-brainer for its deep brown coloration... the chain was meant to evoke the linear nature of the paintings, especially the keyhole chain, which looks like the bisons' bodies to me... to emulate the rough cave surface, i chose a link i had just gotten from artisan clay... it seemed to fit in color and texture... the faceted feldspath, ocean jasper and zebra jasper were meant to play their respective parts in pulling from the overall scheme in color, pattern and texture... i have had these great mykonos greek ceramic spikes in a bronze color for months... loving them but using them sparingly... good thing, because the pair of them represent all of the animal horns that are present... a deep carnelian faceted bead and a red jasper bead pick up the ruddy areas of the painting...

photographing this was a bit awkward as the spikes would lay down on the hand and not look so disproportionate to the rest of the bracelet...

4 comments:

  1. Really nice ensemble Marie! I just submitted one of my designs for ABS...I agree...it would have been totally easy to go over the top. I tried to keep it simple and almost primitive looking Thanks for sharing your inspiration!
    Enjoy the day!
    Erin

    ReplyDelete
  2. What an awesome combination Marie! I love the earthy feel the piece has.

    ReplyDelete
  3. thanks so much... the color part was easy, it was the boiling down to essentials and achieving a primitive effect that was the challenge...

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