Chosen Women Artists - the inspiration continues...
Friday, September 26, 2025
Hello Creative Souls,
This past month has flown by, as they all do, but this was especially exciting as we dove into our chosen women painters and painted like them, remained open to what moved us about their painting technique, style and subjects, and are ready in October to create our own compositions....and anything we learned from and wanted to carry forward in our own work.
I chose Pan Yuliang and Suzanne Valadon. Pan Yuliang, especially......I just finished a well researched biographical novel about this amazingly talented artist from China. What a life! Check out The Painter from Shanghai by Jennifer Cody Epstein. Loved this book! Love this artist who bridged Eastern and Western painting styles.
The objective for painting our painter's paintings (that's a mouthful) was not to become masterful counterfeiters! But to experience what it is like to paint someone elses decisions...their colors, their shapes, their compositions. And listen quietly to hear their voice.....why did they make the decisions they made....and then take what works and leave the rest! Always and ever, each artist interprets what they see and puts their own self in their work.
Here are a few of my inspirations:
 |
| Pan Yuliang painted many self portraits, here's my version of one of them. acrylic on canvas |
 |
| inspired by a self portrait of Pan Yuliang acrylic on canvas |
 |
| from a black and white photo of Pan Yuliang acrylic on paper |
 |
| this last one of Raminou inspired by a Suzanne Valadon still life gouache and pastel on paper |
Suzanne Valadon, French post-inmpressionist, more well-known than Yuliang, did a series of paintings on her cat...who I read was quite the celebrity among her artist friends. Raminou. Orange cats are quite the characters. Myself being a cat person, well.....how could i not reproduce one of her cat paintings?
NEXT....
Next newsletter I will have some of my students amazing work to show you. Here are just a few of the artists chosen by them for this time of study:
Emily Carr
Yayoi Kusama
Mary Cassatt
Fumiko Hori
Alice Neel
Gabrielle Munter
Maria Lassnig
Julie Hart Beers
Tarsila Do Amaral
Aliye Berger
Emma Stern
Helen Frankenthaler
Toko Shinoda
Michelle Scragg
Georgia O'Keefe
Hilma af Klint
Elizabeth Shippen Green
Olga Wisinger Florian
Suzanne Valadon
Pan Yuliang
Mary Cassatt was chosen by a few students.
So, what woman artist would you choose? The parameters were an 18th to 21st C woman artist no longer living. These are the courageous and dedicated souls whose shoulders we stand upon. It's not enough we have discovered to just look and study their artwork, but by delving into their personal life stories.....we found so much to be at awe here. So look up books, movies and youtubes vids and documentaries about these artists. You won't regret it.
Care to join us in October... we start up again week of October 6th. Plenty of time to pick an inspiration!
 |
| Here's our calendar for October. Then we will be painting right on thru the first two weeks of December. And there goes another year!!!! |
Ready to join us?
There's plenty of creativity, inspiration and fun to go around.
→ MORE INFO on my classes here.
If you wish to join us for a month or more of classes,
GET IN TOUCH and see if you don't get inspired, too! 🎨
Blessings, Joanie