I made it to Day TWELVE!  Two more days and it’ll be a full two weeks since

I’ve started this project.  The past couple days felt more like challenges as opposed to opportunities.  I pushed through and must say that today, it was

an absolute joy to paint.  My artist that I’m featuring today is Joan Miró!  I’ve seen his art many times in my life so I immediately recognized it while doing my research.  Let’s learn a little about the artist and then I will bring you through my wonderful and freeing progress of my artwork.

Joan Miró i Ferrà (April 20, 1893 – December 25, 1983) was a Catalan

Spanish painter, sculptor, and ceramicist born in Barcelona. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city in 1975.

Earning international acclaim, his work has been interpreted as Surrealism, a sandbox for the subconscious mind, a re-creation of the childlike, and a manifestation of Catalan pride. In numerous interviews dating from the 1930s onwards, Miró expressed contempt for conventional painting methods as a way of supporting bourgeois society, and famously declared an “assassination of painting” in favour of upsetting the visual elements of established painting.

Born to the families of a goldsmith and a cabinet-maker, he grew up in the Barri Gòtic neighborhood of Barcelona.  His father was Miquel Miró Adzerias and his mother was Dolores Ferrà. He began drawing classes at the age of seven at a private school at Carrer del Regomir 13, a medieval mansion. In 1907 he enrolled at the fine art academy at La Llotja, to the dismay of his father. He studied at the Cercle Artístic de Sant Lluc and he had his first solo show in 1918 at the Dalmau Gallery, where his work was ridiculed and defaced.  Inspired by Cubist and surrealist exhibitions from abroad,

Miró was drawn towards the arts community that was gathering in Montparnasse and in 1920 moved to Paris, but continued to spend his summers in Catalonia.  Read full bio here.

I could’ve stared at Miró’s paintings all day.  I love the playfulness,

shapes, colors and surreal fluidity of his art.  Animals, people, objects and creatures would emerge from them as I examined them.  I love his color choices and the background washes.  I drew inspiration from multiple pieces.  But I’m sure you’ll immediately see which ones I took more from.  I was so excited to start this painting that I pulled out the hairdryer once I was done with the background.  I was also so excited and entranced while painting this that I didn’t take any photos during my progress.  I didn’t realize that until I was finished!  There wasn’t a moment as I painted this piece where I felt dismayed or stunted creatively.  I could’ve added to my piece and I am completely inspired to make a hundred more in honor of this artist.  My husband wants me to do a large canvas in Miró’s style for our new home and I think I’m going to thoroughly enjoy doing so.

I’m very proud to present to you my tribute to Joan Miró!

Thank you so much again for joining me in my art journey and we’ll see you tomorrow! xoxo, Linda