Winter’s Icy Breath: Preliminary Sketches

A detail from Eagle, Nesting Bird, and Wolf preliminary sketches for the painting, "Winter's Icy Breath", by Melani Grube.

  These are some preliminary sketches for my “Winter’s Icy Breath” painting. What is it like to be touched by winter? What creatures thrive in it? I’m not a fan of it, myself. But I have known a person or two who loved the cold. And after all, it sets a nice rhythm to our…

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Winter’s Icy Breath: The Paint Spatter

A detail from The preliminary paint spatter "canvas" for the painting, "Winter's Icy Breath", by Melani Grube. The work in progress.

  What can you see in this paint spatter? This is how I start each painting, with a spatter of paint colors. I was looking for an image of a winter spirit and landscape. I diluted the paint with water to achieve a feeling of transparency and lightness. The colors are pale, but more vibrant…

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Winter’s Icy Breath: the Flat Lay Inspiration

A detail from The flat lay assemblage inspired by the painting, "Winter's Icy Breath", by Melani Grube. From the Muses series. The flat lay includes winter plant sketches, metal and black metallic bracelets, a white heart-shaped seashell, a jewelled pin, crystals, and photos of deer, a nesting bird, snowy landscapes, a siberian husky, and an eagle.

  What do you think of when you think of winter? These creatures came to mind for me. These colors crept in and found a home in my painting. And crisp, crystalline textures crunched about. Keep watching to see this piece develop. See the next post in the process here or start at the beginning…

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The Wonder of Winter

A detail of The word, "Wonder", hand-lettered by Melani Grube.

Your inspiration for the season: Wonder. A word to open up possibilities. When the darkness of the winter lasts longer than the light, it’s easy to feel negative about a lot of things. Especially when it’s cold and you feel stiff. But it’s a clearinghouse moment, a chance to clean your slate and re-evaluate your…

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Happy New Year: What Does A Year Look Like in Color?

A detail from a color spectrum created at the website Year of Colour. The site took Melani Grube's Instagram posts throughout the year of 2018 and extracted the colors and responses to those colors to make this color representation.

  Happy New Year! Would you believe they make a way to look back at how you used color over the year?! That’s what the image above is showing: the colors I used in my posts to Instagram and Facebook in 2018 and how you reacted to those posts and colors. You can do this,…

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