Say hello to August ...

This year is just racing past, I find it hard to comprehend we are into the 8th month of 2016 already.  In August we hope to inspire you with this delightful woodcut by Thea Proctor called The Swing.  It is printed in black ink, and hand-coloured on cream rice paper and is hanging in the Art Gallery of NSW.

CRITERIA - The use of black pen on your work

A little about Thea Proctor ...

Thea Proctor (1879-1966), artist and stylesetter, trained at the Julian Ashton School before leaving Australia for London in 1903 where she remained until after World War 1. In her early years in London, she was a friend and model for her fellow Ashton School student, George Lambert, and encountered many of the major figures of the Edwardian art world. When she returned permanently to Sydney in 1921, her art and ideas were at the forefront of contemporary art and design in Australia; her authoritative opinions on decoration, colour, interior design, flower arrangement, ballet and fashion were widely published in new journals such as The Home (for which she designed many covers) and Art in Australia. An exhibitor in the watershed Burdekin House exhibition in 1929, she was a mentor and champion for young interior designers including Marion Hall Best. Although she maintained a large and varied circle of friends (and adversaries), she was a lifelong singleton, living very frugally in rented accommodation, making a slender living from drawing classes, periodic exhibitions at the Macquarie Galleries and commissioned drawings of Eastern Suburbs children.

And now some stunning inspiration from the first of our team ...

HELENE

I used a black pen to draw an "explosion symbol" to highlight the photo.

LIZZY

Inspiration was from the composition of the picture - created a sketch based on it, & I used the colours.

ELAINE

My page for this month was inspired by choosing a photo of my girls enjoying the outside like in the painting. I went with the bold colours and big patterns that I think of when I see this painting, along with showing a bit of olden style.

MARIA

My inspiration - the girl and the summer! Flowers and frame painted black pen.

AN'JENIC

For my inspiration, I went with the bold black lines and how it makes each detail stand out. This single 4x6 photo of my daughter was perfect. Its was done with an app on her phone. She captures many views of herself. And this app allowed the black lines to stand out.

TRACEY

My inspiration was the story book feel. I used my mad hatter tea party photo. 

SUE

Inspired by the playground/swing, the sunny day and clouds.

Over to you ......

Please upload the DIRECT link to your actual entry with the link tool on the LEFT by 11.55pm on August 31st, 2016.  We'd love to see your new paper, digital, mixed media or off the page entries. Why not try doing a pocket page spread?  Please no back-dated submissions.  

 Please note:- You may combine our challenge with a sketch challenge only - no other combining will be accepted.  Please include our inspirational picture and challenge details on your blog post as well as provide a link back to us at ARTastic  ... and don't forget to tell us how you were inspired by our challenge.  You may enter more than once in any month as long as each submission is with a different creation.  International entries are very welcome. 

Please call past on the 8th for our announcement of the July winners and our ARTastic 3T's - Tips, Tricks and Techniques for August.