2x2: 2 Artists, 2 Sketchbooks -- Week 21

Summer suddenly returned with a vengeance. So humid that every surface feels sticky. I guess I should be careful what I wish for. In truth, though, I'd rather have hot and humid than cold and damp. When I opened Dana's email with this week's pages I immediately felt better. A little cooler, calmer, happier.

Dana (l), Anne (r)

I created a few pages like this one for my sketchbook (not to give anything away...). Collages created from cut up watercolor paintings. Quilt-like, geometric. It was meditative and fun. Dana's squares painted directly on the page look like they were meditative, too. And such delicious colors. Like cool water or clear skies.

Dana (l), Anne (r)

I want to dip my toes in these pages. Or drink them up. They're soothing. A tonic.

Don't forget to check out Dana's blog for her take on this week's pages!


About the project:

2x2: 2 Artists, 2 Sketchbooks is a collaboration between artists Dana Barbieri and Anne Butera. Dana and Anne met in an online painting class. Although they have never met in person, they have become friends through regular visits to each others' blogs. It was through this connection that this project began. Wanting to move from friendship to collaboration, each spent two months filling one half of a sketchbook before mailing it off to the other. Dana worked on the lefthand pages and Anne on the right. Each will be responding to the other's work on the adjacent sketchbook pages over the coming year. Watch weekly as they reveal another page of their story.

About the artists:

Dana is an artist and crafter living in the foothills of the Catskill mountains two hours north of New York City with her husband, two children and little kitty. She is passionate about painting, knitting, crochet, color, pattern and design.

Anne is an artist, writer and crafter who finds inspiration and joy in the beauty of her garden and the magic of nature. Dissatisfied with and disheartened by the pace and lifestyle of the city, she and her husband (with their two rescued greyhounds and an aging Siamese) relocated to a small town in the beautiful Driftless region in southwest Wisconsin with the goal of living a slower, simpler, more intentional life.

*photos in this post by Dana Barbieri