In a Matisse State of Mind

Matisse Milk Can © Beth Stafford 2012

We are having a hot time of it here lately - not much activity out in the yard (or here in the house). Cassie did manage to do a little work on the door, even though she's been a bit under the weather lately. She doesn't like the heat at all - woke up one morning to find her like this - guess the blanket was too much, even with the AC!

 

Anyway, I wanted to do something different with her marks this time, so I outlined them first, filled them in with solid color, and then cut and pasted them into a blank "canvas". Then I decided to do the same thing with the background, using the porch railing outline and the old milk can. It was virtual collage - lots of fun - and then I applied a cutout filter and different color gradients until I got this composition with its echoes of Matisse. Still playing with colors, so it's not an official print yet - might wind up as a large-scale painting (or who knows what?). Lots of possibilities there...