Inspired By... Tove Jansson's Tuoli (1968)

It's again the 10th of the month and time for the "Inspired by" creation! But what is Inspired by? Every month awesome Marsha and I choose a subject to be inspired by. It can be a movie (link), an item (link), a designer (link), a painting (link) or a piece of music (link). Then we make something inspired by that theme or a piece of art and share it with you and each other on the 10th of the month.

This time we draw inspiration from a painting. It's done by a Finnish painter Tove Jansson who's more known for being the mother of the Moomin characters. She actually was a painter and an illustrator long before the Moomins and was quite annoyed that during later years all she was known for were the Moomins. 

But why we suddenly chose to go with Tove Jansson and this particular painting? Well, this year is the 100th anniversary of the creative mind in question and there's events connected to her year round here in Finland. Ateneum, the Finnish National Gallery, was hosting a exhibition of her works. This is what they state on their site: "To mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Tove Jansson (1914-2001), Ateneum will host a major centenary exhibition presenting Jansson’s impressive career as an artist, illustrator, political caricaturist, author and creator of the Moomin characters and stories." 

The exhibition was really interesting and stunning! And it also opened my eyes. Though I knew even before that Tove had an extensive career as an artist, the multitude of styles she tried and mastered was astonishing. Her political drawings from the youth showed a sharp mind with strong opinions and the fairy tale like murals were touching. She was and is an intriguing character!

One of the exhibition rooms was showing her works from the 60's and 70's. Those works blew me away! I loved the bold strokes, the impressive colors and the textures she had created with the paints and the playfulness of the pieces. They had some kind of mature artist vibe in them. One of the most striking piece in the room was the painting above called "Tuoli" ("The chair"). The background is so expressive with the blocks of color and the textural brushwork!

Before I start to tell you about my piece, please visit Marsha's blog to see what she has made using the same source of inspiration!

So here's my creation based on the painting. I think you might see straight what inspired me the most - or you might have even read that one between the lines earlier. My main inspiration was the striking background and the expressive brush strokes of the painting. I first coated a piece of cardstock with gesso and then started making the colorful batches using different acrylic paints. I used dark blue, olive green, turquoise, black and white. Lastly, as the final touch, I added the orange details in, too, to bring more contrast to the background. As you may notice from the original painting, there's similar colors and also the contrast between the blue/green palette and the red and orange batches. 

What also caught my eye was the great juxtapose of the abstract background and the life-like chair painted over it. So I tried to mimic that, too. I created the painted, abstract background and then added the picture on top. I also mimicked the composition of the painting in my layout although my composition is wider and the items more scattered than the original one. What I also used were the arches of the chair as I added the swirls of the Prima thread. 

The topic of the layout is technology in the eyes and talks of my kids. It's wonderful how they talk about "googling" and how "i-Pads" have appeared to their games and play. To them mobile phones are everyday gadgets as well as computers and laptops. It's funny how things have changed in the recent past. 

The picture in the layout is taken this summer when my girls were at my parents's. They were helping my father to build a new level to the bi hives and painting the piece.

I really enjoyed making the piece! The painting was liberating! It was so scary to make the first strokes, but after the dread I then decided just to have fun and that's exactly what I did! Making the paint layers was so much fun and it was great to see how the paints reacted with each other. I think I need someday just to do a painting without any other media or intention to add more.  

Thank you for stopping by today! Now let's all hurry to Marsha's blog to see what she has created! Can't wait to see!

Materials: Ranger, Prima Marketing, 7 Dots Studio, Sodalicious, American Crafts, Sharpie, Epiphany Crafts, Carabelle Studio