October Art Bead Scene

The Art Bead Scene blog challenges readers to create something that is based on an inspiration work of art and uses one or more art beads.  This month’s inspiration is the painting “Autumn” by Milton Avery.

This is the kind of artwork that speaks to me immediately.  I find the colors exciting.  I love that they don’t seem to “go” together necessarily.  It’s like waking up on one of the first really crisp days of fall and taking a deep, cold breath.  Ahh…bracing.

The first bead artist I thought of when looking at the painting was Karen Totten of Starry Road Studio, possibly due to the beads I’ve purchased from her being largely in the tan/yellow/orange/brown color family prominent in this artwork.  I went to look at my stash and found a wonderful leaf pendant the color of the sky. With the myriad of trees in the painting, it seemed appropriate.  I knew I wanted to make a stacked pendant, and I wanted to include that magnificent blue from the tree.  I chose a bead by Rebecca Watkins of Artybecca in just that color.  To separate them, I used an amber lampwork bead by Susan Kennedy of Sue Beads.

I wanted to bring in all the wonderful color from Avery’s painting.  I tried some color blocking first, but I didn’t like it.  I also tried to make things more complicated with multiple strands and types of beads, but the necklace wasn’t having it.  In the end it is just one simple strand, but I think it represents the colors in the painting well.  There is some dyed jade with a mottled color that reminds me of the leafy colors in the foreground.  Another bead brings in the darker orange that is in between the two patches of pink.  There is also some of that bright pink and the white of the wonderful, branchy tree.

I love Art Bead Scene because it encourages me to look at my beads in a different way.  I would never have put these beads together without looking at Avery’s painting and intentionally making something based on it.  But I like how this necklace, like the painting, says, “Wake up and look around you!”