IVY NEWPORT

Studioworks

Journal
a letter from ivy

Dear creative friends,

Welcome to Issue No. 41 of the Studioworks Journal! As always, I’m delighted you are here with me and I’m excited to share this with you. So, for the next three issues we will have a linked theme of the cosmos. By cosmos, I mean the Sun, the Moon and the Stars. 

The last time we linked issues together we explored the elements of Fire, Air, Water and Earth (Issue No. 32 – 35).  I feel like this is an expansion to that. As artists, we are students of the natural and spiritual world. We are keenly linked to nature and the outer world while being simultaneously connected to our spiritual inner world, and to the wholeness of it all. 

So let’s raise our eyes to the sky and be inspired and guided by the limitless potential of the Sun!

xo,

So you may be wondering, where do I start? To that, I say, wherever feels right to you. Each month we will have a theme, a creative affirmation, a power word, a color palette, sketchbook exercises, art projects, articles, recommended reading, and access to wonderful inspiration and resources. I want you to think of this as a delicious new magazine, you know the ones you occasionally splurge on, with soft, velvety pages, beautiful images, and inspiring content!

Each issue will invite you to explore your creative practice in whichever way works for you. Experience each issue at your own pace. Take what resonates with you and put the rest aside for another time.

Grab a cup of something lovely and dive in.

MONTHLY THEME

Sun Worship

The Sun has been worshiped, revered and adored for thousands of years. In fact, the oldest evidence of indigious deity worship is related to the Sun. This brilliant beacon in our sky, the magnificent star center of our galaxy, this burning, molten giver of life – it’s no surprise the Sun has been central to humankind’s wonder and awe.

Among all the nations of antiquity, altars, mounds and temples were dedicated to the worship of the orb of day.
– Manly P. Hall – “The Secret Teachings of All Ages”

Helios and chariot depicted on the dome of the entrance hall of the Széchenyi Bath, Budapest

Known by different names, the Sun God was revered as the giver of life and was recognized as absolutely vital to sustenance. Surya to the Hindus, Mithra to the Persians, Ra to the Egyptians and Helios to the Greeks, the list goes on and on.

All across the globe and our history the Sun reigns supreme in our cosmos and evidence of this is seen not only in ruins and ancient structures but also in artworks. Of course, we know that one group of artists were especially fond of worshiping the sunlight – the Impressionists. Let’s look at just a few stunning and significant artworks from this period in art history that pay homage to our dear Sun.

      Wheat Field with Rising Sun is an oil on canvas painting that was completed in 1890. Van Gogh spent an entire year observing the changing seasons and noticing how wheat flowered in the spring. The rising sun is visible in the background, rising sublimely over the hills that lay beyond. Rippling with color and light, the painting almost vibrates with sun energy. Depictions of the sun rising often invokes feelings of serenity and hope – symbolizing a new beginning or triumph over the darkness.

      “How lovely yellow is – it stands for the Sun!”
      – Vincent van Gogh

      Wheat Field with Rising Sun – Vincent van Gogh – 1890

      Houses of Parliament – Claude Monet – 1904

        For a time during the early 20th century, Monet focused on painting scenes of famous landmarks in London, England. Many of these works featured London’s Houses of Parliament which were situated along the Thames River.

        His painting titled The Houses of Parliament, Sunset was created in 1904 and captures the thick fog that London was well-known for. The glowing orange light of the sun is still evident despite the fog and sparkles in gold on the water. In contrast, the blue purple of the buildings create a mesmerizing effect.

        Monet was known for painting the same scene repeatedly but at different times of the day or varying weather conditions in an attempt to truly capture how light and color shift. His House of Parliament series is considered to be a masterful depiction of the many different ways the sun can illuminate the famous landmark.

        “I wear myself out and struggle with the sun. And what a sun here! It would be necessary to paint here with gold and gemstones. It is wonderful.”
        – Claude Monet

        Although considered a Post-Impressionist and expressionist we can’t overlook Edvard Munch’s Sun mural. The Sun is perhaps the greatest achievement of modern mural painting. Symmetrically structured, it occupied the enormous front space of Oslo University. The painting pictures the sun as it spreads out large rays of light in every direction to illuminate the entirety of the landscape.

        The painting is more colorful when compared to his previous work, which had a more morbid, melancholic theme. This can be attributed to the fact that it was painted in the year 1909, after Munch has come back from hospital, battling acute anxiety and excessive drinking. Perhaps his depiction of the glorious sun also can be related to his own rebirth and salvation from mental illness.

        The Sun – Edvard Munch – 1909

        These artists and thousands of others were inspired by the Sun. I don’t know an artist alive who doesn’t marvel at the quality of sunlight and how it constantly changes our landscapes and inner spaces.

        To gaze at more sun worship artworks and historical and cultural imagery you can visit the Pinterest board I created for you…

        Sun Worship

        by : Ivy Newport

        Tapping into Sun Energy

        We know that the sun is our source of energy and life but we can often take that for granted or feel very separate from this ball of fire in the sky, millions of miles away from us. In actuality, we are so very connected to the Sun. Our bodies are regulated by sunlight and our brains produce more serotonin (the feel good hormone) when we are exposed to the sun’s rays. These effects of the sun are one aspect of our physical connection but we are aligned to the sun’s energy in our energetic, emotional and spiritual bodies too. Spiritually, the sun is symbolic of vitality, confidence, power, happiness, joy, divine masculine energy and of course creativity!

        So how, we tap into solar energy and honor this powerful star?

        Say hello to your Solar Plexus.

        While we already discussed some of the physical bodies’ response to sunlight, let’s talk about the energetic body – your chakras. Did you ever happen to notice that your third chakra is also called the SOLAR plexus? Not a coincidence! The solar plexus or Manipura, is the sun center of your energy body. It spins in the area around the abdomen above the belly button up to the breastbone. Meaning “lustrous gem” in Sanskrit, the Manipura chakra provides a source of personal power and relates to self-esteem, warrior energy, and the power of transformation. This is literally your inner sun! So how do you connect with this energy point within your body? You can do this with meditation, self-reflection/journaling, exercise such as yoga with a focus on this chakra, affirmations and self-care.

        The Solar Plexus Chakra at a Glance

        Name in Sanskrit: Manipura – meaning lustrous gem
        Location: In the abdomen above the belly button up to the breastbone
        Color: Yellow
        Element: Fire
        Signs of balance: Confident, motivated, purposeful, reliable, responsible
        Signs of imbalance: Aggression, overly dominating toward others, low self-esteem

        Honor the Sun in your creative space and home

        We can enhance our connection to the Divine Sun by honoring the Sun in our home.

        Add some sun aligned crystals to your altar or creative space (see Denise Stargazer’s video this month for more on this), pop them in a sunny window to fully appreciate their radiant beauty. Bring flowers and plants into your home. Plants and flowers are a direct gift from Father Sun and Mother Earth! Adding natural elements like this will fill your space with beauty and high vibrations. Hang sun catchers in your windows. You can even create your own! I’m a big fan and love seeing a scattering of sun gifted rainbows on my walls. This always brings a smile to my face.

        Embrace your Yang Energy

        The Sun’s energy is always available to us, whether it’s rainy or a clear blue day. We carry sun energy within us in the form of Chi energy or life energy. The Sun is associated with Yang energy or masculine energy. This is the partner to Yin or feminine energy, represented in the Moon. This Yang aspect of self is the one that moves forward, gets stuff done, begins projects, strikes up conversations with people and makes decisions. This energy is very fast moving and energetic, it is primal and intense. Yang is active energy. Yin is passive energy. Balancing the two gives us balanced Chi Energy or balanced Life Force. So check in with your divine masculine, yang, sun energy – are you taking action? Are you exercising your body? Are you creating movement in your life?

        Create with the Sun

        Get outside and do some plein air creating which is a fancy French way of saying outdoor painting. Find a sweet spot in the shade (we don’t want to get too much sun) and capture the beauty in front of you. This could be a flower in your garden or a landscape near your home. Watch the light shift and change as the time passes. Observe what it does to the shadows and colors. Alternatively, create a painting, collage or other creation dedicated to the Sun.

        Move your body

        Remember Sun energy is Yang energy which is active. So go for a walk in the sunshine or rise early in the morning and do some sunrise yoga. Dance around your studio! Vitality is key to harnessing sun energy so try and move in ways that make your body feel good.

        Remember, you are NOT separate from Nature. You ARE Nature so therefore, the Sun is a part of you – embrace this and shine your light bright!

        “The Sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world’s joy.”
        – Henry Ward Beecher

        For those looking to try some gentle beginners yoga or get that beautiful Sunrise movement in check out this video…

        Tapping into Sun Energy

        by : Ivy Newport

        Journal Prompt & Card Spread

        Let’s explore our connection to our solar center and chi energy (life force) a little more by doing a little journaling and/or a tarot or oracle spread.

        I’ve chosen 3 cards for this spread paired with 3 invitational questions to go within…

        1. Where do I feel most powerful and radiant in my creative life?
        2. What blocks me from my power and energy?
        3. What changes can I make to better balance my energy (chi) flow?

        Please feel free to print out this journal prompt & card spread and put it somewhere in your sketchbook or journal.

            The Goddess Sol

            As many of you know, I adore mythology and I often find inspiration in cultural stories about various gods and goddesses. So since we are exploring the power of the Sun this month, I thought it might be interesting to learn more about the Norse goddess of the Sun – Sol.

            Who Is Sol?

            According to Norse mythology, in the beginning of time, when the cosmos were being created, so too was the goddess Sol. She was brought into the universe along with her brother, Mani. Initially, the role of the siblings wasn’t clear, but after they created daytime and night, and also the phases of the moon, Sol and her brother were assigned their destiny. At a meeting of the existing gods, Sol was anointed the goddess of the sun, and Mani god of the moon.

            The story goes that sparks were gathered by the gods from the Land of Fire, and the sun, moon and stars were created. Sol was to ride in the sky in a chariot drawn by her horses named Arvak, which translates to early riser, and Allsvinn, meaning swift.

            During Ragnarok, the “twilight of the gods”, which in Norse mythology is the end of the world, Sol is finally swallowed by the wolf Skoll along with the sun, and the Earth submerges into the waters. Ragnarok is a major event in the legends of the Norse. A huge battle occurs, along with a series of natural disasters that consume the world. Only two humans and a few gods survive. Subsequently, a new world rises that is rejuvenated and fertile. The reborn gods meet once again, and Sunna, the daughter of Sol, now even outshines her.

            Modern Influence

            Unlike in the mythology of other cultures, the goddess of the sun was not a major focus of the Norse people. The oldest known documents about the Germanic pagan religion are called the Merseburg Incantations. Written in Old High German, are two medieval spells or incantations. They are stored in the cathedral of Merseburg, Germany, hence their name. The incantations reveal that Sol was honored as a deity of protection and victory, in addition to as the goddess of the sun. She was also a healer. Despite being somewhat of a lesser goddess of legends, Sunday (Sunnudagr) originated as the specific day in her honor.

            It is said that in Norway, the Land of the Midnight Sun, where the sun stays high in the sky for 10 weeks, Sol is emphasizing her power.

            Check out this Pinterest Board dedicated to Sun Goddesses

            Symbols of Sol

            Animals – Horses

            Objects – the Sun, chariot and golden discs

            Crystals – Clear quartz, citrine, sunstone, carnelian

            Colors – Gold, white, orange, yellow

            Tarot card associated with – The Sun

                The Goddess Sol

                by : Ivy Newport

                Sun powered Artist PROMPT
                • Take a minute (outside in nature if you can) to create your own symbols for the Sun. Create them in your art journal and just have fun doodling while focusing on the beauty of our dear Sun.

                Born Again in Radiance

                by Danna Faulds

                I love this poem by Danna Faulds because it truly expresses the sweet hope and beauty of a new dawn and the rising sun! A reminder of our brilliance and divine ability to be renewed each day. Enjoy…

                Who can resist the first,
                optimistic moment of dawn –
                the dazzling sliver of light,
                sun rising, rounding, making
                the profound shift from
                promise to presence.
                Every possibility contained
                in a single instant; light
                linking us to vastness,
                light reaching back to the
                formation of stars, light that
                will not let us forget that
                we are daily born again in radiance

                Check out some of Danna’s books below…

                Born Again in Radiance

                by : Ivy Newport

                WORD OF THE MONTH

                Illumination

                Illumination:

                The action of illuminating or state of being illuminated: such as spiritual or intellectual enlightenment.

                The Sun brings up so many words doesn’t it? Power, confidence, joy, radiance but I kept on being brought back to the word illumination. Which of course is exactly what our dear Sun does. We can remember that the Sun’s intent is to shine light on each and every thing and bring warmth and life to all. We can remember to shine that same light into our creative lives. Let the Sun energy illuminate your artist’s path. Let it guide you and nourish you. 

                Let it sustain you when dark shadows emerge, when we doubt or falter, or wonder if we are good enough. Let the Sun remind you that you are always worthy of light and that your own radiance shines ever present even when you don’t necessarily feel it! If there is any vocation or calling that demands that you witness light, it is that of the Artist. Keep letting the Sun’s light illuminate all that lays before you. Hold your head up high and like the Sun, rise each day.

                 

                “Illumination is nothing if you do not share it with anyone. Illumination is about spreading light across entire nations. It’s about wearing that crown that shines like the sun on your head and getting other minds to synergize with yours.”
                – Suzy Kassem
                Word of the Month - Illumination

                by : Ivy Newport

                Golden Awakening Meditation

                WITH RACHEL HILLARY

                I am sharing this beautiful Golden Awakening Meditation from one of my favorite meditation masters – Rachel Hillary. This lines up perfectly with our Solar theme! This gentle meditation is perfect to start your creative day with! So gift yourself about 20 mins to enjoy this special time connecting with the rising sun.

                Rachel will share a little about this experience –

                This is a gentle guided practice designed to softly wrap you in blankets of healing light, to re-awaken your own power, your magic, your healing and beauty. It feels like a lovely delicate treat for yourself, for your spirit. Let the light in. Lift your spirits. Rise up beautiful one!

                Lots of love,

                Rachel

                “If every day is an awakening, you will never grow old. You will just keep growing.”
                – Gail Sheehy
                Golden Awakening Meditation

                by : Rachel Hillary

                You can download more meditations and connect with Rachel here…

                Monthly Affirmation
                Each month we will have a positive affirmation. I recommend you print out this affirmation and put it in your sketchbook or somewhere in your studio. Recite the affirmation out loud each time you show up to create. Saying words aloud is powerful and can begin to re-write some of our own limiting beliefs or calm our fears. Try it now…
                Sun Crystals & Life Energy

                With Denise Stargazer

                Hello friends. In this month’s Studioworks Magazine we’re focusing on the Sun. Life Force. Its masculine energy that gives us motivation and direction. The properties of our Sun help us connect to the primal essence of all that is alive—and to the energy this magnificent star (in the center of our solar system) shares with us here on earth.

                As we focus on the Sun, why not share some magnificent crystals which tap into our Solar Plexus Chakras? In fact, the centers of our bodies hold the primal life force that is expressed through our personal energy system (our chakras). This energy resonates not only to the sun, but to our personal power, our motivation and drive, and to our relationships.

                As I gathered up my favorite crystals and items in my studio, it was difficult choosing only a few to share with you this month! Know that any stone or crystal that links to our Solar Plexus Chakra will supply a hearty helping of the Sun’s magic. So sit back, relax, and enjoy this offering of Sun-related crystals for the month of May.

                Learn more about Denise by visiting her website and follow her on social media…

                “Sunshine is my quest.”
                – Winston Churchill
                Color Palette of the Month

                This month, I couldn’t help but be inspired by our master artist, Paul Gauguin. Hello color! Paul Gauguin was an absolute MASTER with color. His vibrant palette and use of intense hues is incredible! Much of his work, especially the work he created during his time in Tahiti is infused with lush hues. Deep reds, rich oranges, luminous yellow, verdant greens, ocean deep blues, his work sings with color and pattern. So we will be letting this color genius guide our creations this month! Have fun with this sun soaked rainbow of colors! Be bold!

                As always, work with colors that call to you and never doubt your creative intuition. Your colors may look entirely different and that’s ok.

                “Color! What a deep and mysterious language, the language of dreams.”
                – Paul Gauguin
                Color Palette

                by : Ivy Newport

                Master Artist Guide

                Paul Gauguin

                This month, I’m so very excited to bring you the work and story of Paul Gauguin. I remember learning briefly about Gauguin in art school but wow – what a fascinating and yes, rather controversial journey to go back and study him on a deeper level. Like many male artists from history, Gauguin was a unique personality, to put it kindly. Intense, rebellious and often downright repellent – this man was nonetheless an artistic genius! We are not here to judge his life choices but rather admire and learn from his art.

                Almost completely self-taught with no formal art education, Gauguin mastered painting, ceramics and sculpture. His confident, bold paintings are filled with Sun energy and radiant exuberance, while tempered by his own host of shadowy fears and desires. He was a rather conflicted fellow. This blend makes for rich, thought provoking and exciting artwork. So let’s put aside his major character flaws for now (and yes, there are many of those) and instead focus on his incredible gift for artmaking…

                Overview

                Paul Gauguin is one of the most significant French artists to be initially schooled in Impressionism, but who broke away from its fascination with the everyday world to pioneer a new style of painting broadly referred to as Symbolism. As the Impressionist movement was culminating in the late 1880s, Gauguin experimented with new color theories and semi-decorative approaches to painting. He famously worked one summer in an intensely colorful style alongside Vincent Van Gogh in the south of France, before turning his back entirely on Western society.

                He had already abandoned a former life as a stockbroker by the time he began traveling regularly to the south Pacific in the early 1890s, where he developed a new style that married everyday observation with mystical symbolism, a style strongly influenced by the popular, so-called “primitive” arts of Africa, Asia, and French Polynesia. Gauguin’s rejection of his European family, society, and the Paris art world for a life apart, in the land of the “Other,” has come to serve as a romantic example of the artist-as-wandering-mystic.

                “I shut my eyes in order to see.”
                – Paul Gauguin

                Childhood

                Paul Gauguin was born to Clovis Gauguin, a journalist, and Alina Maria Chazal, daughter of the socialist leader and early feminist activist Flora Tristan. At the age of three, Gauguin and his family fled Paris for Lima, Peru, a move motivated by France’s tenuous political climate that prohibited freedom of the press. On the trans-Atlantic journey, Clovis fell ill and died. For the next four years, Gauguin, his sister, and mother lived with extended relatives in Lima.

                In 1855, as France entered upon a more politically stable era, the surviving family returned to settle in the north-central French city of Orleans, where they lived with Gauguin’s grandfather. There, Gauguin began his formal education and eventually joined the merchant marine (compulsory service) at age seventeen. Three years later Gauguin joined the French Navy. Returning to Paris in 1872, Gauguin took up work as a stockbroker.

                Early Training

                Following his mother’s death in 1867, Gauguin went to live with his appointed guardian, Gustave Arosa, a wealthy art patron and collector. Under Arosa’s care, Gauguin was introduced to the work of the Romantic painter, Eugene Delacroix, as well as the work of Realist painter Gustave Courbet, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, and the pre-Impressionist, Barbizon school of French landscape painting. This education of the artist’s eye in the work of his close predecessors was to have a lasting effect on Gauguin’s later work.

                Gauguin married Mette-Sophie Gad in 1873; subsequently, Gauguin, his Danish wife, and their five children moved from Paris to Copenhagen. Gauguin also began to collect art, procuring a modest array of Impressionist paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, and Camille Pissarro. By 1880 Gauguin was himself painting in his spare time and employing an Impressionist style, as in his Still-Life with Fruit and Lemons (1880). Gauguin also took to frequently visiting galleries, and eventually he rented his own artist’s studio. In addition, Gauguin painted beside newly befriended artists Camille Pissarro and Paul Cézanne, and he himself participated in the official Impressionist exhibitions in Paris of 1881 and 1882.

                “Do not copy nature. Art is an abstraction. Rather, bring your art forth by dreaming in front of her and think more of creation.”
                – Paul Gauguin

                Gauguin lost his job as a stockbroker in the financial crash of 1882; by 1885 he was seeking a new means of making a living. Plagued by bouts of depression, Gauguin finally decided to pursue his painting as an alternate career path. He returned to Paris determined to make a professional go of it, indeed, despite the fact that up to that time he entirely lacked formal artistic training. Meanwhile, Mette-Sophie and their children settled with extended family in Denmark. A several-month’s stay in Brittany, at Pont-Aven, in mid 1886, proved a decisive turning point for Gauguin, who developed there a Symbolist style of painting in which flat, luminescent colors, like those of stained-glass windows, came to signify the local Breton peoples’ natural and spiritual experience.

                Life with Fruit and Lemons – 1880

                Four Breton Girls – 1886

                During this trip and a subsequent sojourn in Brittany in 1889, Gauguin sought to achieve a new kind of “synthesis,” or fusion of color, composition, and subject matter, not only from painting before a live model or landscape, such as in the manner of the Impressionists, but by bringing together numerous studies in a way that finally evoked the inner life of his subject over merely suggesting its outward appearance. In his Four Breton Girls (1886), for instance, naturalistic tones of landscape co-exist with larger expanses of pattern and color that begin to suggest a symbolic importance to the subject lying beyond what’s immediately visible. Two years later, Gauguin sailed to Panama and, subsequently, Martinique, often living in a hut with friend and fellow artist Charles Laval. These travels to so-called primitive cultures; his observation of the natives in their own natural environment; and his own employment of a rich, vibrant palette would soon come to serve Gauguin as a foundation for an original artistic style.

                “Color which, like music, is a matter of vibrations, reaches what is most general and therefore most indefinable in nature: its inner power.”
                – Paul Gauguin

                MATURE PERIOD

                By the late 1880s, Gauguin’s work caught the attention of Vincent van Gogh, another young and gifted painter who, like Gauguin, frequently suffered from bouts of depression. Similarly to Gauguin’s, van Gogh’s painting – while distinctly Impressionistic – showed the potential to blossom into something entirely new. The two artists began a regular correspondence, during which they exchanged paintings, including self-portraits, among them Gauguin’s Self-Portrait ‘Les Miserables’ (1888). In 1888, at van Gogh’s invitation, the two men lived and worked together for nine weeks in van Gogh’s rented house at Arles in the south of France. Van Gogh’s brother and benefactor, Theo van Gogh, an art dealer by profession, served as Gauguin’s primary business manager and artistic confidant at the time.

                “Art = a mad search for individualism.”
                – Paul Gauguin

                During these nine weeks, both artists turned out an impressive number of canvases, among Gauguin’s his now-famous Night Café at Arles (Mme Ginoux) and a signature early work, Vision After the Sermon (Jacob’s Fight with the Angel) (both 1888). Neither man had a particularly promising reputation in the art world at this moment; rather, both were regarded as highly experimental painters searching for a new style that might depart from the mature Impressionism of Monet, Renoir, and Pissarro. The intensity of the artistic exchange would come to a dramatic conclusion as, by the end of nine weeks, van Gogh’s depressive and occasionally violent emotional episodes led to the dissolution of their artistic partnership, although the two would forever admire each other’s work.

                Self-Portrait ‘Les Miserables’ – 1888

                The Yellow Christ – 1889

                Gauguin returned to Paris, but only briefly. By now completely uninterested with Impressionism and what had, by that time come to be referred to as Post-Impressionism, Gauguin focused on further developing his Symbolist flat application of paint and bold palette as in his painting The Yellow Christ (1889), a work largely influenced by Japanese prints, African folk art, and popular imagery imprinted on Gauguin’s memory from his travels to South America and the French East Indies (today’s Caribbean).

                In 1891, after spending years away from his wife and children, Gauguin effectively abandoned his family by moving alone, like a perpetual, solitary wanderer, to French Polynesia, where he would remain for the rest of his days. This move was the culmination of Gauguin’s increasing desire to escape what he regarded as an artificial European culture for a life in a more “natural” condition.

                “In order to produce something new, you have to return to the original source, to the childhood of mankind.”
                – Paul Gauguin

                In his final decade, Gauguin lived in Tahiti, and subsequently Punaauia, finally making his way to the Marquesas Islands. During this time he painted more traditional portraits, such as Tahitian Women on the Beach (1891), The Moon and the Earth (Hina tefatou) (1893), and Two Tahitian Women (1899).

                Seeking an unworldly sense of repose and detachment, he is said to have been obsessed with his own mortality. He looked back on his life and even borrowed figures from his own earlier paintings, perhaps as though to symbolically lend them an extended lifespan. Notably, by 1899 Gauguin was referring to himself satirically, writing to a Paris colleague that he painted only “on Sundays and holidays,” ironically like the amateur he once embodied prior to pursuing art seriously. Not long after that self-deprecating quip, he unsuccessfully attempted suicide by self-poisoning.

                In early May, 1903, morally skittish, and weakened by drug-addiction and regular bouts with illness, Gauguin succumbed to the degenerative effects of syphilis and died at the age of 54, in the Marquesas islands, where he was subsequently buried.

                 Two Tahitian Women – 1899

                The Legacy of Paul Gauguin

                Gauguin’s naturalistic forms and “primitive” subject matter would embolden an entire, younger generation of painters to move decisively away from late Impressionism and pursue more abstract, or poetically inclined subjects, some inspired by French Symbolist poetry, others derived from myth, ancient history, and non-Western cultural traditions for motifs with which they might refer to the more spiritual and supernatural aspects of human experience. Gauguin ultimately proved extremely influential to 20th-century modern art, in particular that of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque and their development of Cubism from about 1911 to 1915. Likewise, Gauguin’s endorsement of bold color palettes would have a direct effect on the Fauvists, most notably André Derain and Henri Matisse, both of whom would frequently employ intensely resonant, emotionally expressive, and otherwise “un-realistic” color.

                “The public wants to understand and learn in a single day, a single minute, what the artist has spent years learning.”
                – Paul Gauguin

                This two hour documentary about Paul Gauguin is fascinating!

                Another good one…

                Here’s a Pinterest board full of work from Paul Gauguin…

                “Whatever may happen the sun will rise tomorrow as it rose to-day, beneficent and serene.”
                – Paul Gauguin
                Master Artist Guide

                by : Ivy Newport

                Sketchbook Explorations

                EXPLORATION 1

                Inspired by Gauguin

                Let’s get our color love going and create a painting or master study with Paul Gauguin. Feel free to get bold, abstract form and pour your creative passion into this piece. I adored creating a piece inspired by his “Two Tahitian Women”. I let myself sketch freely and play with all sorts of hues that I rarely use in my own work. This kind of exploration expands our creative expression while we learn alongside the Master.

                EXPLORATION 2

                Sol or Sunna

                Using our chosen Sun Goddess (or one of your own) create a page in your journal or a small piece inspired by the radiance and beauty of the Sun!

                Here is a Pinterest board I’ve curated to inspire you…

                EXPLORATION 3

                Sun Worship

                 Create a little display in your creative space or home dedicated to the Sun. This could be a collection of crystal, flowers or elements that remind you of the Sun. Light a candle here each morning you go to create and remind yourself of your own inner radiance! Shine brightly dear one!

                “Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.”
                – Louisa May Alcott

                MONTHLY ART LESSON

                with Ursula Wollenberg

                I’m excited to share this wonderful lesson from one of our dear teachers, Ursula Wollenberg. Ursula has created a beautiful nest inspired project for us. Tied to nature and ultimately our heart and home, the nest is a universal symbol. Fueled by the warmth of our love and protection we nurture our nests, just as the sun nurtures us and all of divine creation. So dive in and connect with the wonderful energy of this lesson. Deep gratitude to Ursula for creating this for us!

                “Nature is not a place to visit. It is home.”
                – Gary Snyder

                 

                STUDIOWORKS

                Submission Calls

                If you’d like to be featured in an upcoming Studioworks Journal, we’d love to have you join our Creative Network! Our intention with Studioworks has always been to cultivate community involvement and collaboration. Featuring members from our creative community is such an honor and a beautiful way to share the light you all bring. Come join us!

                STUDIOWORKS PODCAST

                issue forty-one

                You can also listen to this month’s issue of the Studioworks journal. I find I love listening to books, podcasts and music while I draw, paint or go on a long walk. Enjoy.

                Studioworks : issue forty-one

                by : Ivy Newport

                inspiration: curated
                One of my favorite things to do is to curate inspiration. From Pinterest boards to books, resources, playlists and more – I love to share anything that might facilitate learning, expansion, and sparks of curiosity! Being an artist, we naturally crave these things so here are some of this month’s picks from me to you.

                Books to Discover & Enjoy

                MUSIC PLAYLIST

                I had so much fun curating this list. I hope you enjoy!!

                THINGS TO WATCH

                This two hour documentary about Paul Gauguin is fascinating!

                Another good one…

                Beginner Sunrise Yoga

                A great explanation of painting Sunlight and color temperature

                PINTEREST BOARDS

                NEW CLASSES ADDED TO STUDIOWORKS

                Here are just a few of our fantastic classes! I highly recommend checking them out if you haven’t already. Enjoy!