Wabi-Sabi Art Workshop: Mixed Media Techniques for Embracing Imperfection and Celebrating Happy Accidents by Serena Barton Paperback: 128 pages
My kind of art – embracing the imperfect and finding the beauty in every day things. They had me at imperfect. I like the way the Wabi-Sabi philosophy sees all things in life – like the old and weather ravaged barn, a flower with only 3 petals, a sign out in the sun with some of its letters faded, roof views of laundry hanging on lines along with a rooftop garden, mud puddles, fish swimming in the Mississippi, so many things can be wabi-sabi which is finding the beauty in the imperfect and bringing that to light and enjoying it. This book shows the reader how to look at anything, a pile of stuff rotting away in a junkpile but allowing the eye to catch the red of a bicycle frame alongside the green and orange of a lawn furniture pad, the yellow of an umbrella and the green of long forgotten soda bottles. Once you learn the magic of seeing the beauty inside unlikely things this book tells you many techniques to bring that beauty to a canvas through acrylic paints, inked rollers, how to create textures in the art you are creating withpaper towels, gauze, paintbrushes, etc. Whether the reader/artist chooses to carve, use spackle, paint, try different effect techniques like sponging or splashing colors on whatever media one chooses to use to gleen unusual sensory effects there is no wrong way of achieving your artist vision the beauty is in the imperfection that blends to become something new and whole in its own right. Using plaster then using a fork, a knife or any implement to add groves, knothole depth, pastel water effects the sky and the imagination is limitless. The magic comes when we, the artists stop trying to make exact copies of something and let our spirits play and let the muse take us wherever it wants to carry us – no right, no wrong- no stress. Painting over ads or documents of any kind, spritzing a little of this and that on it then wiping bits away to reveal haikus within – it really is an amazing and happy form of creating the unique, the unusual and the most interesting found pieces of art. Who knew you could add coffee or tea to plaster to create visually interesting and beautiful seasoned looking pieces and making your living space into your own one-of-a-kind haven for your soul. Wabi-sabi is to art what poetry is to writing – it expresses the best in simple yet highly expressive ways. You will learn so much from this book and free your developing artistic talents. I enjoyed this book as much as if I was actually in a class being taught by the author, Serena Barton and in many ways the reader will be transported to this “other” place. Like a breath of air on a Fall day when you can smell so many different scents at once (fire, earth, crushed leaves, coolness of winter to come, warmth of the waning sun and more) and find pleasure in each individually and as a whole. Wabi-sabi art is so interactive and its beauty comes from its abstract means of discovering a new reality in what you see and what your art piece becomes. I really liked this book. It opened my mind to let go of striving for perfection to see the beauty in wherever the wabi-sabiness of the moment takes you. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for an easy way to express themselves artistically, those looking for a new hobby and to those wishing to learn to let go of old ways of thinking and expand their minds in the new way of appreciating what is and reveling in the simplistic beauty of all things before us. Very enjoyable read. Love the concept.
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