2x2: 2 Artists, 2 Sketchbooks -- Week 33

This week's pages makes me want to PAINT!

Dana (l), Anne (r)

Is it confusing that the "inspiration" page (the one done first) isn't always on the right? Reading left-to-right doesn't give the story of how the pages were created. Not that it really matters. The way we describe the pages in our posts usually makes that clear.

Anyway, this week was fun for me to do, painting clouds on watercolor paper. Kind of fitting for right now (even though I painted my clouds months and months ago) with the beautiful wintry skies we've been having.

Watercolors work so much better on actual watercolor paper than on the pages of our sketchbook -- just look at the gorgeous effects on Dana's page. Those colors are so yummy, too.

Dana (l), Anne (r)

Makes me want to just sit down and play with color. With water. Let the paint do its thing. A great exercise if you don't known what to paint or if you're not really in the mood, either. Calming. Soothing. Perfect if you have only a few minutes to create (during the bustle of the holidays?). Hint. Hint. Doesn't it make you feel like picking up brushes and paper, too?

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