March Challenge

This is the third prompt for #coloritree, part of the ongoing #coloricombo 2023 challenge. There will be ten posts in total, all linked to artworks featuring trees by female artists from the past. These will be released on Monday and Thursday until the end of March.

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“When I paint, I am happy and I am in another world.”

– Baya Mahieddine

On 8 March it will be International Women’s Day. This day is celebrated around the world and raises awareness of issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights and violence and abuse against women. If you’ve been receiving #coloricombo prompts for a while, you’ve probably noticed that Este likes to feature female artists in her weekly prompts.

All of the March #coloritree prompts are dedicated to women who made contributions as artists and who left their own unique legacies. Throughout history, women have been underrepresented and often dissuaded from making art and on the week of International Women’s Day we want to draw attention to an artist who influenced one of the most celebrated artists of all time whilst she was still a teenager!

Baya Mahieddine, or simply Baya as she styled herself (1931-1998) was an Algerian artist who gained international recognition for her unique style that combined North African, Middle Eastern and European influences.

Born in Bordj El Kiffan, Algiers, Baya lost her parents at the age of five and was raised by her grandmother on a French-colonial farm. She didn’t attend school and at age eleven started working there as a servant to the farm owner’s sister, Marguerite Camina, later described as Maya’s adoptive mother.

Camina was a painter with a personal collection including works by Braque and Matisse, who recognised Baya’s self-taught talents. She showed Baya’s work to a gallery owner friend who arranged a solo exhibition in Paris in 1947 when Baya was only sixteen. This was attended by numerous famous artists of the day, including Picasso and she became an overnight sensation with both artists and critics praising her primitive style.

Baya’s work features vibrant colours and bold shapes inspired by her personal experiences and motifs drawn from Kabyle arts. She often depicted women (men are never shown), animals and trees and her work was celebrated for its originality and authenticity.

In 1948, Baya was invited to become artist-in-residence at the Madoura pottery studio the south of France, where she was based until 1952 working her summers alongside Picasso who would later cite her as an inspirations for his Women of Algiers series.

In 1952 Baya returned to Algiers, married and raised six children over the period that Algeria was seeking independence from France. It would be 1963 before she resumed painting, living for the rest of her life between Algeria and France.

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Colour Combination

The colours for this weeks prompt are Tangelo Orange, Soft Lavender, Pastel Matcha, Acqua and Han Blue.

For this March Challenge, please add the tag #coloritree along with the usual #coloricomboand #estemacleod and @lorisiebert.studio when posting on Instagram. You are also welcome to post on the private Facebook group Creative Prompts with Esté MacLeod.

You all created such beautiful heart art during this Feb. challenge co-hosted with my friends:

Mary Ann Johnson

Kelli May Krenz

Vanessa Johanning

We LOVED seeing all of your creativity!!!

(I was bummed not to join in more. I’ve had a very busy travel schedule lately!)

Here are the judges selections!!

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Robert Mahar picks:

Lorrie Veasey

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Laura Socinski

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Rosanna Dell

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Uta Krogmann

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Kate Dittman (Hallmark) picks:

Laura Socinski

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Printware Studios

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Uta Krogmann

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 Cindy Winter (Paper Crown) picks:

Suzan Baldoumas

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Laura Socinski

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Shannon Christensen

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Kelly Henderson

Here is the second prompt for the Instagram challenge that I am currently co-hosting with Este MacLeod.

Have you checked out the gorgeous art already posted at #coloritree?? Beautiful work!!

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“It has been said that modern art is international but it is important for a great nation to make a cultural stand. My wish is to see a combined attempt by our artists to give us an art that no other country in the world can produce.”

– Margaret Preston

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The second artist to be featured in this #coloritree March Challenge is Margaret Preston. Preston (1875-1963) was one of Australia’s most significant modernist painters and was known for her paintings and woodcuts of local landscapes and native flora. She was also one of the first non-indigenous Australian artists to use Aboriginal motifs in her work.

Preston was born in Adelaide and moved to Sydney in 1888 for studies under the landscape painter William Lister Lister. These were followed by further education in Melbourne and at the Adelaide School of Design. She travelled to Europe in 1904, studying in Munich and Paris and later travels brought back to France and to London at the outbreak of World War One. There she studied pottery and had work exhibited at the Royal Academy.

On her voyage home in 1918, Preston met her husband who had served in the Australian Imperial Force. They settled in Sydney where she worked on still lifes in a modernist style and began working in woodcut. She established herself as the most prominent Australian woman artist of the 1920s and 1930s.

Preston continued to travel extensively, throughout the Pacific, Asia, India and Africa and had a keen interest in non-European art and culture. She was particularly interested in exploring the relationship between colour, shape, and texture in her art and featured uniquely Australian subjects, such as native flora and fauna or scenes from domestic settings.

Throughout her career, Preston was a strong advocate for the promotion of Australian art and culture. She was a member of several art societies and wrote extensively on Australian art and its place in the world.

“Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden”, Colour stencil, gouache on card, Margaret Preston, 1950

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Colour Combination

The colours for this weeks prompt are Blue Skies, Eucalyptus, Dough and Pewter Blue.

For this March Challenge, please add the tag #coloritree along with the usual #coloricombo and #estemacleod and tag @lorisiebert.studio when posting on Instagram. You are also welcome to post on the private Facebook group Creative Prompts with Esté MacLeod.

March Challenge

This is the second prompt for #coloritree, part of the ongoing #coloricombo 2023 challenge. There will be ten posts in total, all linked to artworks featuring trees by female artists from the past. These will be released on Monday and Thursday until the end of March.

Introduction

Spring is coming, and so is a special #coloricombo colour month-long challenge.

I’m co-hosting #coloritree together with fellow colour lover Este MacLeod https://instagram.com/estemacleod?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= over the coming five weeks until the end of March when there will also be a BONUS treat.

Este and I both have an enduring love of trees and will be sharing colour prompts inspired by artworks of trees for #coloritree. The artworks are created by female artists of the past, each prompt will have a selection of colours picked from a specific artwork.

This is how it works: ten colour prompts have now been complied, to be shared every Monday and Thursday during March, along with information about the female artists who made the artwork Este sourced the colours from.

To keep with the rhythm of the regular Monday #coloricombo prompts it will start a bit early, with the first prompt sent out on 27 February.

The BONUS

Este would also like to invite you to join Four Seasons. This is a brand new, mini five day course with trees as topic, with FREE access during the month of April!

Registration will open in the coming week, information to be sent out to subscribers on her mailing list.

The Podcast

Also, Este recorded the first episode of Art Sparks, a podcast she has been meaning to do for the last four years or so!

The podcast is about colour, creativity and all kinds of topics linked to art and in this first episode she talks about #coloricombo. https://courses.estemacleod.com/podcasts/art-spark…

I hope that you will join us and also help us to spread the word!! Cannot wait to see what you create!!

XO

Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky.

– Kahlil Gibran

A million thank yous to everyone who created and supported the #wordsofcomfortandhope art journey.

This was a challenging project for so many reasons. The messages, memories and meaningful pieces created were beyond expectation. What a special and loving community this is!

It has been so moving to learn more about your loved ones who have passed and the tools you used to adapt when faced with grief. The power of art as a healer continues to be proven as an outlet to move through the toughest challenges.

Thanks to my co-host: Jo Turner

And a BIG THANKS to our judge Susan January of @leanintreecards!

She had a hard time picking pieces, as each was so poignant for different reasons. Leanin’ Tree plans to publish these designs in their Everyday Card Catalog for January 2024.

*If you see your name and you have not been contacted in a DM on IG…please let us know*

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Those selected are:​

Tracey Coon, Noonday Design

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Christine Anderson

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Lots of love and gratitude,​

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​Please follow this hashtag for the challenge announced earlier today!

Sorry for the confusion!!

We launched the #heart2heart2023 challenge on the 1st. And, in the spirit of love… we are adding a second, very special challenge, this month.

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​​My friend, Jo Turner, reached out to me about co-hosting a challenge that honors our loved ones. Those who have left this life. There has been such loss over the last few years. We wanted to create a way to give comfort and hope to our community. For me… this one is dedicated to my Mom and Dad.​​

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Jo and I each selected a poem to serve as a prompt. Feel free to interpret however you wish… or even select your own poem or quote. All of the details are in these graphics.​

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The very lovely Susan January, Vice President/ Product Management for Leanin’ Tree cards will be our esteemed judge for this challenge.

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I hope you will join us.

XO​

PS. I recently listened to a podcast by Anderson Cooper about grief. I highly recommend it…especially the episode with Stephen Colbert.​
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Celebrating the heart in the month of LOVE!!

Co-hosting this one with my friends:

Kelli May-Krenz

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Vanessa Kiki Johanning

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​Mary Ann Johnson

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1. Just pick one of the prompts each week.

2. Illustrate, sculpt, stitch, draw, letter your creative response to each prompt.

3. Post your image using #heart2heart2023​

Still working on confirming our judge for this challenge.

Will announce that soon!!

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Spread the Love… Spread the word!!!

Join the FUN!!​

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