2x2: 2 Artists, 2 Sketchbooks -- Week 62 (aka the last week!!!)

So here we are. The last spread of the 2x2 Sketchbook project.

What more can I say? Last week I wasn't really ready for it to be over and now it is.

62 weeks of sharing our pages. More weeks before that of planning and then working quickly to fill up pages. Soon my sketchbook will be on its way back to Dana, filled with so much more than just paint and marker and pen and yarn...

But I should share our last spread.

I had no idea what I was going to do for this week. And in a way I didn't want to do it (because I didn't want our project to be over). I also felt a bit of pressure. This is the last week and it better be good.

Once I started working on it, though, I reminded myself of what I've learned during this journey. Sketchbooks aren't supposed to be about pressure. They're not about being good. They're about practice and play. They're about letting go. They're about action, not contemplation and foot dragging.

The paint on my palette, leftover from my iris painting, coincidentally worked with the color palette of Dana's page.

Dana (l), Anne (r)

And so I painted a page of flowers. No planning beforehand. Just sitting down and touching paint to paper.

Dana (l), Anne (r)

Loose. Colorful. Playful. All that a sketchbook should be.

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

And be sure to stop back on Friday because Dana and I will be sharing a recap and celebration of our project. Let's toast collaboration, inspiration and continued creativity. Thanks so much for following along with our adventure!


About the project (get the full story on the 2x2 web page):

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) relocated to a small town in the beautiful Driftless region in southwest Wisconsin with the goal of living a slower, simpler, more intentional life.