Are you familiar with Picasso’s work in clay? I didn’t realized that Picasso was so passionate about clay. His ceramic pieces ended up being some of my favorite. They inspired many of our graphics for our Catalonia collection.
Novillo Romper, El Gato Graphic Tee, Daisy Graphic Tee, Pajarito Graphic Tee. All on sale!
“To draw, you must close your eyes and sing” -Pablo Picasso (this quote is featured on our Daisy Graphic Tee)
“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” -Pablo Picasso
I loved the above Picasso quote, because it was exactly what I needed to do when I was designing our Spring 2011 Catalonia collection – reconnect with the artist of my youth. This was a great lesson for me and something I hope stays with me over time. I try to instill these ideas in my younger cousins who I often have drawing/art sessions with. The younger of the two is 5 and she fully embraces her inner artistic child. She draws with no fear and complete creativity. The 12 year has started having doubts. He’s constantly self critiquing his work and wants to be able to draw more realistically. He has the desire to grown and learn and I want to encourage that. I do my best to encourage them and to hopefully lessen the fear of failure.
Here’s some things I do to help them feel special about everything they do:
1. Frame their artwork. Kid’s love this. It makes it feel like their piece is really appreciated. My grandma would do this with everything we painted. We wouldn’t bring any art home until it was framed – which made us so proud to show them off!
2. Ask for help. I often admire the way they draw and ask them to show me how to draw like that. I’m an adult, they have the impression that I know what I am doing, so when I ask for help they know they must be doing something really unique if I can’t do it.
3. Turn their art into something. Last year I had them both design t-shirts. I took their drawings and got print on demand t-shirts with their designs. They were so excited when the shirts came in. I remember the younger showing it off to my aunt, “Look grandma it’s a REAL shirt!!!.”
How do you encourage the young artists in your life?
An example of how great decorating with your children’s art can look! – found on Pearl Street
Oscar de la Renta’s outdone himself with his latest Resort 2012 Collection. Drawing inspiration from Spain’s cubist artists such as Picasso, his line celebrates bold patterns and geometric shapes, much like Tea’s current Catalonia-inspired collection.
We love the way he’s transformed this artistic movement into an edgy line of urban couture. Bright colors and textures are combined with simply-cut dresses to create a timeless collection.
There is so much inspiration to be drawn from art movements in Spain. Below are a few pieces of Tea’s interpretation of Cubism and Picasso’s art:
Above from left to right, Tea’s Picasso-inspired Songbird Banded Dress, Woodcut Bubble Dress, and Artista Wrap Dress.
Can you see the shared inspiration?
The New York Times came out with an interesting article yesterday on Picasso, specifically focusing on his work with guitars. We love Picasso’s guitars, and were inspired by them to create our Guitarra Tee (see below). For more information have look at our past blog posts on the Cubist Art Movement, and Cubism and Guitars.
Picasso’s Bacchanale Linocut and Tea’s Etched Print Ruffle Top
Horses have been an important part of Spain’s culture, agriculture, military, and sport for hundreds of years. However Spain’s most famous breed of horse would have to be the Andalusian.
Engraving of Andalusian, 1743
The breed was developed in the Iberian Penninsula in the 15th century, and was originally used as war horses to carry warriors during battle. They were eventually replaced by sturdier, larger horses who could carry men in armor, and since then have become sport horses, doing anything from dressage to bull-fighting.
This Spring we celebrated Spain’s love of horses with our Caballo Graphic Tee, inspired by the cubist art movement and Picasso’s horses:
Here are a few of many of Picasso’s horse drawings & paintings. There are many great Picasso horse drawings from 1936 & 1937 when he was doing studies for Guernica. The bottom right piece Tete de Cheva was actually stolen from a Swiss museum in 2008. Picasso seems to be very popular with art stealing criminal crowd. Darn Peirce Brosnan - making stealing artwork seem so appealing (if you’ve ever seen The Thomas Crown Affair).
Tea’s Caballo Graphic Tee and Picasso’s Horse Study V
The Online Picasso Project is a great place to explore some of Picasso’s lesser known works and see many of his studies.
p.s. one last great horse drawing that I can only find here.
Picasso painted many roosters in the cubist style (above).
Cubism influenced other important Spanish artists, Joan Miró and Salvador Dalí- who apparently also liked roosters (pictured below with pet Rooster).
Tea’s Gallo Graphic Tee and Miro’s Le Coq
Picasso’s Bull Series starts with a realistic bull and gets more simplified and abstract.
Tea’s Toro Layered Tee and Picasso’s The Bull State V
Cubist paintings by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Jaun Gris.
Guitars and violins were a popular subject for cubist painters – so popular, that it made it very difficult to choose which paintings to post.
all images from: Olga’s Gallery and JuanGris.org
Tea’s Guitarra Graphic Tee and Georges Braque’s The Bottle of Mark