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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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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The Paint Spatter That Inspired “Wild Horses”

A detail from A spatter of paint in violets and yellows from which the images for the "Wild Horses" painting emerged.

  Each one of my paintings starts with a spatter of paint. Pictured above is the spatter that inspired the painting, “Wild Horses”. I can always feel an excitement when I have a paint spatter that holds an image that I have yet to uncover. What can you see in this spatter? See the evolution…

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The Art of the Flat Lay

A flat lay of mystical images, color studies, patterns, handlettering, ribbons, gathered from a mood board.

  What is a flatlay? A flat lay is a photo of an assortment of items laid on a flat surface (thus, flat lay). The photo is most often taken from directly above the items. The surface serves as the background to the photo. The objects usually describe a theme, like “a day at the…

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A Big Secret That Will Help You Create a Website You’ll Love

A flat lay of mystical images, color studies, patterns, handlettering, ribbons, gathered from a mood board.

  Want to build a website you’ll love? With all the details and possibilities, where do you start? I asked myself, “What am I all about? How will this site reflect what I’m about?” At first, the technology and practicalities of building the site loomed large and in the way of the design. But I…

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Journey of Hope 2017: Color Study Flatlay

Beading in lavenders, pinks and blues, silver floral broaches and a burnished gold locket with floral detail.

As I went to put together the color study flat lay for this painting (for the Journey of Hope Art Exhibit 2017), I couldn’t come up with anything to use. I kept drawing a blank. What did I have that was the appropriate colors?  I soon realized that I wanted the objects to not just…

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Color Inspiration for “Afternoon, Revisited”

    Color, wondrous color. I love transparent colors, but then, I also love the sheen of satin ribbon that rich, opaque color delivers. And oh, the metallics! In this flat lay photo, you can see some of the colors swirling in my life right now and that have been reflected in my current work,…

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