An artist with a long and interesting life
Week 34's colours are Ochre, Soft Pink, Sea Green & Indigo
This week’s colour prompt is inspired by a floral painting created by Dorothea Tanning, an artist who had a long life - she was still working into her 100s. Today marks the anniversary of her birthday. Tanning’s legacy is that of a Surrealist visionary and an artistic pioneer.
Tanning (1910-2012) was largely self-taught and created in a selection of mediums: painting, sculpture, writing and set design. Born in Galesburg, Illinois she moved to New York in the 1930s where she first came across European Surrealism, particularly at the 1936 Museum of Modern Art show "Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism". Surrealism’s focus on the unconscious and dream imagery resonated with Tanning, whose own work often blurred the lines between dreams and reality.
Tanning met the artist and Surrealist founding figure, Max Ernst in 1942. The German had already been arrested twice in France, causing his partner, the artist Leonora Carrington to sell their house and move to Spain, and had just been released from an internment camp with the help of the art collector Peggy Guggenheim who he had since married. That didn’t last and in 1946, Tanning and Ernst were married in a double ceremony together with the visual artist and Surrealist Man Ray and his muse Juliet Browner.
Tanning's early paintings often featured young girls in mysterious situations, blending realism with fantastical elements. Her most famous painting, a self-portrait titled "Birthday" from 1942 made Max Ernst notice her and this painting firmly established her Surrealist credentials.
Her work frequently depicted figures caught between states of being with doors, mirrors and other architectural elements as motifs representing the transitions from the conscious to the unconscious realms.
The painting I’ve chosen this week’s colours from was painted when Tanning was 86 years old. The story goes that she had thought she had finished painting, but found a set of blank canvases in her New York studio, purchased during her time in France.
Starting to paint on the first turned awoke something within her and she “could hardly finish one before I’d start the next one”.
The resulting series of twelve flowers were painted over the course of a year, from June 1997 to April 1998 and showcase her interpretations of the female figure blending into dream-like florals.
Here’s an article that talks about the series in more depth and another covering her retrospective at the Tate Modern in 2019. Here’s a link to the painting on the artist’s website.
"Zephirium apochripholiae (Windwort)”, oil on canvas, Dorothea Tanning, 1997
Colour Combination
The colours this week are Ochre, Soft Pink, Sea Green & Indigo. Use the colours along with a contrasting dark and neutral light colour if you wish. Create an artwork in any medium or style.
I love seeing what you create. If you’re posting on Instagram, please tag #coloricombo and #estemacleod and join us in the private Facebook group Creative Prompts.
Video demonstration
For contributing subscribers I recorded a video demonstration with this week’s colours where I altered an old watercolour painting using Luminance colour pencils.