Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Queen of the Slip Jig

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

It's day 17 of my blog "going green" and this is the last Irish themed painting I will be posting for quite a while. I can't believe I actually had enough Irish art to last for 17 days! 

For the Dancers

Today's painting is dedicated to the Irish dancers - again. Yes I know I have dedicated two paintings already to the dancers but this one is special for two reasons.

The first reason is because the dancers add so much good positive energy to the St. Patrick's Day Celebrations. The little kids are so darned cute and the more experienced dancers are just amazing. They put their heart and soul into their dancing. And the next day when all the celebrating is done, and the shamrocks and other decorations are put away, the dancers are back in class getting ready for the next event: usually a competition.

Irish dancers train all year; there is no real season like football. St. Patrick's Day celebrations are probably the most fun for the dancers, but only a small part of what they do.

Queen of the Slip Jig

And if you're wondering "what is the second reason why the painting is special", it's because it's dedicated to my daughter Katie. This painting was done when she was in the middle of her last year of high school and last year of dancing with the Johnston Irish Dancers.

The painting is titled "Queen of the Slip Jig" a play on Van Morrison's "Queen of the Slip Stream". In this piece, a well worn pair of Irish dance shoes, a crown and a few medals propped up next to an old concertina tell of a long, but satisfying day at the Feis.

Look closely at the shoes and note that the laces are worn and frayed and the toe of one shoe is held together with duct tape. Dancers shoes take as much beating as a pair of combat boots!

Let's hear it again for the dancers!!! And good luck at the Worlds competition next month!!!

"Going Green"

If this is your first visit to my blog and you like the Irish theme I'm working with you might want to look at posts from the previous days.

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - In County Clare

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Love Irish Dance

Bonus Painting

And I promised a bonus painting for today. It's a re-run folks - the same painting that started us off on this 17 day virtual journey of Irish themed art.

Slainte!

Green Beer Parade 

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Love Irish Dance

It's day 15 of my blog "going green" for St. Patrick's Day! 

Today's Irish painting is dedicated to all the Irish Dancers who have been so busy with the parades, dance-outs and other St. Patrick's Day events.

Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication, and for making each celebration a special event!

This is a watercolor featuring a pair of dancing ghillies, with straps from the dance shoes intertwining to form a heart. Shamrocks and Trinity Knots complete the design.

Going Green

Since March 1, I have been posting Irish themed art on my blog. If this is your first visit to my blog and you like the Irish theme you might want to take a look at posts from previous days. You can click on any of the links and eventually get back to the posts from March 1 - 14.

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Parade Day

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Arches and Shadows From County Tipperary

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Connemara Mist

Two more days to go. Tomorrow we go to County Clare and on St. Patrick's Day there will be another dedication to those hard working Irish Dancers. And maybe a bonus picture too!

Slainte!

www.windyhillstudioarts.com

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - "Steppin' Into March"

Today's painting comes from the world of Irish Dance, again. This is a common theme for me when I am working on Celtic designs. My daughter Katie danced for many years with the Johnston Irish Dancers, so I had plenty of dance related props around the house to work with.

In this case I borrowed Katie's ghillies (soft shoes) and built a design around the shoes. They are the focal point of the picture. The shoes are positioned so that they appear to be dancing. The laces loop around and around and become part of a Celtic knot pattern.

I enjoyed working with the idea of positive and negative space as I painted the Celtic pattern and shamrocks. In some case the objects are painted, in other places the area around the object (negative space) is painted creating an interplay of light and dark values and a sense of depth.

This day 7 of my blog "going green" in honor of St. Patrick's Day. I hope you are enjoying the paintings. I will keep posting Irish themed paintings till March 17.

Dance Memories

I have wonderful memories of the years my daughter danced. The times Katie and I spent together traveling to competitions with dance friends are among my favorite memories. We had a lot of laughs, shed a few tears and met so many great people along the way. And enjoyed the best music and dancing ever!!!


"Steppin' Into March" is available as a 8 x 10 print. Price $40


If this is your first visit to my artist blog and you like the Irish theme I'm working with, you might want to take a look at some of the other posts from the last few days March 1 - 6.

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Across the Miles
Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - The Rising of The Moon

Stop by my website too  https://www.windyhillstudioarts.com

Slainte!

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green - Ceili

It's day 4 of my blog "Going Green" in honor of St. Patrick's Day which is coming up soon! Today's painting is called "Ceili!" and comes from the world of Irish Dance…and also from my imagination!

A Ceili (pronounced kay-lee) is a gathering or party, featuring traditional Irish music and dance. 

Inspiration for this painting came from my daughter Katie who danced with the Johnston Irish Dancers  for several years. 

In creating this piece I used several photo references and did quite a few sketches until I came up with a composition that reflected the excitement of the Ceili.

Two dancers, slightly left of center, leap toward opposite sides of the painting creating a diagonal tension and moving our eye toward the supporting elements, the musicians. One dancer's foot points directly to the fiddle player, drawing her into the area we call our focal point, or main area of interest.

The two dancers and fiddle player create a triangle shape, which becomes our focal point. The viewer can see part of a bodhran and the hand holding the tipper. Part of an accordion is visible, but very abstracted near the left corner. And last but not least, in the top left corner we have what seems to be a band; they are very abstracted and painted in subdued color...I call them the "Muddy Neutrals".

Color also played a big role in painting this piece. Bright bold colors and active brushwork create a sense of drama as colors seem to leap off the canvas along with the dancers. You can almost hear the music!

Slainte!

If this is your first visit to my blog make sure you take a look at the posts from the last 3 days.  I will be featuring Irish themed paintings March 1 - 17.

Related posts

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green- Green Beer Parade

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green-Dunguaire Castle

Joan Applebaum Art Goes Green-Beach at Dingle

Creating Movement in a Painting

Variations on a Theme: Dance!

As I am getting ready to teach a class in collage, I am looking through old files and photos of collages created over the last few years. I came across the Dance series for which I had not only created 4 visual pieces, but also a text to go with each one. So....I decided to post it on my blog.

The Dance Series started with a pile of discarded sheet music found in a wastepaper basket at Cultural Resources Council, now known as CNY Arts. I was immediately intrigued by the endless possibilities presented by contrasting the music with all of its obvious implications, with abstractions; color, shapes, and patterns. Whether or not the abstractions related in any way to music was not important initially, however as my idea began to take shape, music again became important as the driving force behind each piece which represents a different style of Dance.

The series consists of four pieces White Ballet (Ballet), Nairobi Night (African Dance), Guts and Grace (NIA) and Steppin’ at the BB (Irish Step Dance).

White Ballet: The term for traditional ballet, graceful, flowing, uplifted and ethereal, all fluffy white and pink tutus.

Nairobi Night: African Dance, earthy and grounded, fiery colors, movements driven by the insistent drumbeat.

Guts and Grace NIA: or neuromuscular integrative action is a fusion of modern dance, martial arts and the healing arts and a study in contrasts. Complimentary colors, positive and negative shapes, linear and rounded, flowing and staccato all at once.

Steppin’ at the BB: Irish step dance. Linear, uplifted movement, the staccato beat of hardshoes on wooden floor all represented by the straight edge of the watercolor abstractions. The torn side, edged in gold, a representation of the soft side,ghillies and intricate patterns across the floor.