Hello everyone and welcome to the November Muse Challenge! As some of you may know, I recently moved from New South Wales (mainland Australia), to an island state called Tasmania (located below the southern part of the mainland). Since I have been here I have become aware of so many fascinating contrasts in this new place called home, especially in the physical surroundings around me. For instance, as you drive along the road beside the beach you are thinking how beautiful it all looks, and then you turn the corner and bam! there is an ugly industrial port, loading wood pulp onto huge ships to be taken to who knows where! Or you are driving along a normal country road with plowed fields, farm sheds and equipment on both sides of the road and then drive around a bend and wow! you are driving through a national park with fantastic gums and native flora surrounding you on both sides of the road! So it's really an amazing experience for me at the moment, finding all of these unexpected contrasts happening all around me! Anyway, all this made me start to think about the word CONTRAST and how we all live in a world of contrasts, in one way or another, whether it be within our own personal situations or the greater world around us. So in thinking about what I wanted to do for this month's muse, my thoughts turned to how art has so many different contrasting components to it. Think about contrasting colours, contrasting textures, contrasting shapes etc. So I hope that you will join me in discovering the various ways we can use contrast to express ourselves through our art this month! Week 1: Nov 6-12 | Contrasts - Physical Surroundings While I was surfing the web in search of some inspirational images and ideas to use, I came across this article that highlighted several artists who, as quoted in the The Yellow Sparrow article "take contrast in art to a new level". CLICK HERE TO READ IT. As soon as I came to photographer/artist Daniel Kukla No. 4 (in the article noted above), I immediately identified with the images that he had captured in such an imaginative way! Straight away my head was filled with the contrasting images that I have seen here in my part of the world, and I knew instantly that this is what I wanted to explore first! So I would like you to take a look at your physical surrounds with new eyes and look for those elements that are in contrast to one another. You will need two photos/images for this challenge and they will need to roughly mimic the format shown in Daniel's images, one photo on top of another. The top photo does not necessarily need to be in the middle though! Your images need to be from your own surrounds and the images need to be located in close proximity to each other. Some examples; perhaps you have an green leaf tree standing beside a tree with autumn colours in your garden; an industrial building next to a leafy park; a rusty truck within a beautiful garden. Get the idea? The contrast for this week's challenge needs to be something physically visible, NOT a contrast in light, form or colour (we will be exploring these during the month). Here is my page, featuring the Port of Burnie where the wood chip terminal is located as the background photo with the top photo showing what the beach looks like next to it. (see my gallery for credits) Really looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with!! Remember you can scrap in any page design or style you like, just make sure to have fun with it! Please post your layout to the Art Journaling Gallery HERE prior to December 3, 2018 and then post it in this thread by copying the code (at the right of your gallery image) from the box under "Share BB Code". We will draw a winner at the beginning of next month, even more incentives for your inspiration! You can use any products in The Lilypad store, make sure you follow our gallery guidelines. If you have any questions, ask here in this thread.
Sounds like you live in a very fascinating place, Ona. That has to be inspirational for your art. Very interesting challenge and your layout is such a wonderful example of contrasts! I need to give this some thought.
What a wonderful, thought-provoking challenge, Ona. Now that we live in a touristy town in SW Florida, I see things that I never saw all the years that we spent 2 weeks here every year (from Christmas until after New Years). We stayed in a tourist area and were so busy at the beach every day, that we never had a need to leave. I love getting off the beaten path now and shooting street photography. I did my layout on those two contrasts.
I really enjoy the Monthly Muses on the Art Journaling board...sort of stalk to jump on the prompts as soon as the new ones are posted. This was especially fun for me. We'd never been desert people (yes, webbed-footed Seattleites) until 7 years ago when we were invited to join a friend for golf in Arizona. It was love at first sight (or would that be "site?" LOL). We loved the sunny dry days, the warmth of Arizona winters, the huge wide open skies, and the incredible contrast between lush green golf courses dotted with palm trees, surrounded by saguaro and jumping cholla cactus. The only downside is that we visit just a couple times a year...another sort of built-in contrast: Seattle--Phoenix....hmmmmm....
This area I walk along came to mind when I started thinking about contrast, the neutral colored architectural coldness of this area and rigth next to it is the airy, colorful lush landscape.
Here is mine. A visit to the Nicholas Conservatory & Gardens to see a lorikeet exhibit, compared to their parking lot.
oh I am in love with all of these pages!! I am heading into the gallery tomorrow to leave some proper love, so to see all the different interpretations!
I created an ATC for this challenge. There are three photos I took of the Lake at Sharon Woods Columbus OH.
Back Here Again For Another Monthly Muse...Love This!...So This Week's Challenge Is About Contrasts That Surround You In Nature/Outdoors/Your Surroundings...Indeed There Are So Many Contrasts To Pick/Snap...It Is Still Fall Here But It Is Leaning Towards Winter Now With Lots Of Snow On The Way This Week & Stretching Into The Weekend...So I Wanted To Find A Perfect Fall/Autumn Pick With Fall Colors Depicting Beauty In Both Bright Colors & Also In Dark Perhaps A Bit More Foreboding Subject Matter... *This Picture Is The Perfect Balance Between The Two...The Large Background Photo Used Here Shows That Wonderful Purple/Pink Color Of The Setting Sun In The Backdrop Of The Beautiful Autumn/Fall Trees In Both A Green & Gold Color Palette...Both Equally Stunning In Beauty & Color & Hard To Look Away From...But Low & Behold...Just A Little Bit To The Immediate Left...As You Can See In My Smaller Photo Layered On Top...There Was A Smaller Clump/Island Of Trees & Branches...All Turned Black & Looking Burned Out...I Stared & Wondered How This May Have Happened To These Poor Little Trees?...Did Someone Purposely Burn These Wonderful Trees Or Were They Burned In The Sunlight?...Either Way Would Be A Tragic Injustice To Me...But If You Look Just Long Enough...You Can Still See The Setting Sun Peeking Out In The Background & The Contrast Of The Green/Gold Trees In The Background Giving These Little Trees & Branches A Glow & Light Of Life About Them...Making Them Look Equally As Beautiful...So Beauty On The Right & Equally Amounts Of Beauty To The Left...Isn't Nature Just Amazing,Beautiful,Inspiring & So So Surprising?...What A Wonderful Thing It Is To Bare Witness To Such Beauty...I Was Overwhelmed With Calmness & Delight At The Same Time... *For My Painted Autumn Layout-I Used: *Treasured:Fall Is In The Air-A Lilypad Collab-Rebecca McMeen *Watercolor People Set 4-Rebecca McMeen *Fall-Bundle-Lynne-Marie(2 Items Used) *Autumn Goodies-Elements-Paula Kesselring(1 Item Used)
Loved this challenge! I was looking for examples of physical contrast as I travelled to work and around my town and then I saw this in my own garden. Not sure if its droughted or die-back but either way its in significant contrast to the bushes beside it!
There is a sanctuary space not far from these trees, and the gate is covered with hoarfrost right now.
