quiltersmuse.com Blog

When my gift subscription copy of German Life, February/March 2008 issue, arrived, I had time to briefly glance at it and then set it aside. Yesterday, I returned to the magazine, only to find an article about Carl Spitzweg, (1808-1885), a famous and much beloved German painter, written by Robert A. Selig who holds a Ph.D. in German history from the University Wurzburg (1988).

I simply love “Arme Poet” (The Poor Poet) painted in 1839. The first time I saw this image was a postcard sent from Germany by my sister. She is an artist and she studied the art works of Europe by traveling to major museums when her husband was stationed in Germany.

You can see a small version of the painting online, and read more about the life of Spitzweg. Selig states that “Arme Poet” was “voted as the second most popular painting among Germans.”

German Life is an excellent magazine. I am so pleased to have received this subscription, as a gift. Maybe this will give me an incentive to spend time learning more German. Another incentive is that my Ukrainian quilter friend/penpal who now lives in Germany is studying German. It could be a common second language (besides her English) and just another way for us to converse.

Patricia Cummings, http://www.quiltersmuse.com

A lecturer about art once described drawings as just lines. He said that they can be parallel or they can intersect. Lines can be straight or they can be curved. They can be placed so as to create a “vanishing point,” as in looking a long way down a straight road to a place where parallel lines are no longer visible.

Of course, to artists, there is a lot more involved in creating a drawing. One has to be cognizant of the shadows an object is casting. One needs to think about where more lines are needed … or less lines.

Like anything, if we say it fast, as in “You just do this and you just do that,” drawing seems easy as pie. It is sort of like telling someone how to bake a pie who has never made one before.

Children come easily to art. They have no high expectations of themselves. They just like to create. If you want to ruin a child’s chances of ever wanting to be an artist, just start telling him that the “sun” should be bigger, the stick figures fatter, or that the bunny’s ears should go up, not down.

Adults who pick up charcoal pencils or colored pencils or pastel sticks do so with trepidation. Adults are afraid to make a mistake. Adults think that because they are adults, they should do everything perfect … the first time. Even though they know that is not possible, they have to be talked out of their fears.

Just for the fun of it, doodle. No matter what instrument of writing you have in your hand, start making lines. Experiment. Make some lines thicker, some thinner. Draw circles freehand. Try drawing ovals. Create the image of a monkey face. You’ll find that drawing can become rather addicting. All the while just think, “I’m making lines.” Maybe you’ll be able to find some pleasure in the task, rather than superimposing an expectation on yourself that you are making “ART.”

Patricia Cummings, http://www.quiltersmuse.com