Square Apples (c)2012 -Acrylic, 20″ x 16″

Take the Challenge

I’m connected with the most amazing painter on Google Plus, +Lena Levin.

She started a couple of challenges: “Chagall Challenge”:  making a Chagall-inspired artwork (in any medium, traditional or digital) and posting it on G+ for virtual exhibition in December at +In Studio With The Masters. Any visual artist is invited to participate for a virtual exhibition in December. The other was a personal challenge: the “Wrong color”: to paint something in color that would seem “wrong” realistically speaking, but that would feel “right” to the painter.  The bold freshness of her “Floating apple” got me hooked!

So, besides working on the Chagall Challenge on the side, I started me on my own “Quick Study” challenge. The first thing I do when I walk in the studio is grab a small canvas or board and sketch with paint for ten minutes—like stretching before running. There are no expectations of genius in these, just raw expression.

The image in this post is part of my “Quick Study” series but inspired by Lena’s floating apples. It left me unimpressed; I left it in a corner. Danny’s only comment was, “They’re square!”—hence, the name. But after a couple of days, seeing it out of the corner of my eye, I grew very fond of it! You might not like it, or any of the other studies I’ll post, but they help me work out my color-kinks! So feel free to comment, even if you detest what you see!

On Google plus, you can also follow these tags: #chagallchallenge #weeklychallenge #marcchagall