2x2: 2 Artists, 2 Sketchbooks -- Week 36

It's so interesting to me to think about the timing of our 2x2 Sketchbook pages. This week's page was created during the winter. Dana sketched some sweet, cheerful primroses, those hopeful plants that pop up in the stores near the end of winter, promising the arrival of spring.

Spring came and went. Summer came and went. Autumn came and... hello, again, winter.

And hello, sweet cheerful primroses in the 2x2 Sketchbook.

Dana (l), Anne (r)

Dana sketched her flowers with marker and I almost pulled out my markers this week, too. But then I changed my mind.

For my page I cut flowers from various bits of colored paper in my stash. Some were paint sample chips. Some were from a painted page that Dana used as the wrapping for a package she sent me back when she ran her Artful Sketchbook e-course. Fun cycle for that.

Dana (l), Anne (r)

My bouquet is entirely imaginary. These aren't primroses. And I'm not sure what flowers grow with such long, string-like stems (they remind me of a bunch of helium balloons). Usually I'm a bit of a stickler for botanically-correct depictions of flowers.

This time? Well, it was fun just to play.


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.